A Sun Shines in Parallel
by QueenOfTheDreamers87
Summary: What happens when 'dead' isn't, strictly speaking, 'dead? Jyn and Cassian find themselves standing on a peaceful beach with no trace of a battle, a base, or a war. Then they find K-2SO… and Chirrut Îmwe… and Baze Malbus… and suddenly the very definitions of time and space become completely muddled. Epic-length adventure/thriller with *strong* Jyn/Cassian. Re-upload.
1. Chapter 1

It felt like taking a drink of hot broth, like a heartbeat coursing straight over her skin. It was just a little push, a little thud, a little thrum in her veins. It was surprisingly peaceful, dying.

Tied up in Cassian's arms, Jyn felt safe for the first time in her entire life. Right there on the beach, surrounded by chaos, with the shockwave hurtling toward her, she felt safe. And when it hit, in its oddly warm and docile way, the shockwave was a blanket over Jyn in a luxurious bed.

She closed her eyes and smiled, really smiled, as she felt the realization come over her that her life was over. Nothing had ever been easy, not from the moment that she and her parents had gone into hiding. Nothing had really been peaceful; she'd been abandoned by Saw as a teenager with lethal weapons as her only supplies. Her life had been meant to be brief, Jyn thought, but at the very least, she had accomplished something .

She took her last breath before the shockwave hit, breathing in the rusty sort of smell that Cassian carried with him. She tightened her arms around him and listened to his racing heart, and then the energy of the strike hit her and meshed with his pulse. Jyn's breath lingered in her lungs until it burned.

And then she breathed out, which was odd, because as far as Jyn Erso knew, dead people couldn't breathe in either direction.

"Jyn."

Cassian's voice came through the ringing in Jyn's ears and the heavy weight of silence. At first she didn't answer him, too confused to register that he could speak if he, too, was dead. But then he said it again.

"Jyn?"

She took a step back, which seemed unlikely. She eyed the way her boots pressed on the sand, and she looked out at the water, and she realized sunlight was glinting blissfully off the waves.

"Jyn."

She finally looked up at Cassian, blinking quickly as she took him in. He was clean. He had not been clean before; he'd been covered in sweat and oil and the detritus of battle. His hair looked like he'd washed and styled it; his shirt was a fresh, unmarred beige linen. His trousers and boots were free of stains or tears, and there were no weapons at his hips. Jyn glanced down at herself and saw a clean, tight gray tunic, a pair of new black leggings, and boots that reflected the sunlight.

"So we are dead," she affirmed, meeting Cassian's eyes. He seemed just as confused as her. He looked out at the water and murmured,

"They struck the planet. I saw the… the shock wave was coming straight for us. I felt it."

"I did, too," Jyn nodded. "That's how I know we're dead. And look at us, anyway. I doubt either of us has ever been this clean before. But I can say, Captain, that I am honored to be standing here dead with you."

"Jyn." Cassian shook his head and started turning in a slow circle. "Something is not right."

Jyn followed his eyes, turning around as he was doing. There was nothing. There was no base, no communications tower. There were no TIE fighters screaming overhead, no walkers marching and firing, no X-wings crashing onto the sand. There were no shoretroopers, no deathtroopers, no blaster fire, no explosions. There was no blood on the beach. No shrapnel. The trees were all swaying in a warm, peaceful wind, utterly untouched by warfare. There was absolutely no evidence that anyone had ever been here until right now, in this very minute.

"Mm-hmm," Jyn said, putting her hands on her hips. "We are most certainly dead."

Cassian scoffed a little and shrugged. "What are dead people supposed to do, then, if they find themselves marooned on an atoll?"

"Well," Jyn mused, kicking at the sand a little, "I would assume that dead people do not need food or water or anything like that. I suppose we just… stand here. Until…"

She trailed off then, for she had no good real answer to his question. Jyn frowned when she realized her stomach was growling with actual hunger. How long had it been since she'd eaten before they'd died? Many hours, but that shouldn't matter. She walked rather determinedly up the beach and dragged her boot over the sand, looking for buried evidence of what had happened.

"Time travel?" she heard Cassian ask helplessly, and Jyn responded,

"No such thing."

"Well," he called up to her, "I find myself awfully thirsty for a dead person. And if we are dead, allow me to be the first to declare that the afterlife is very unimpressive."

"How did our clothes change, then?" Jyn demanded sharply, whirling to glare down to where Cassian stood. She held her arms up and asked, "If we're not dead, where is everyone else? Did I imagine a battle here? Did I imagine sending plans to the Alliance? Was that all some sort of dream? If we're not dead, why were you and I left standing holding one another on a beach while everything else disappeared?"

"I don't know," Cassian admitted, "but I am very thirsty."

* * *

It took them five hours to find a lens of freshwater floating above the saltwater. They used shells and stones to dig, and by the time they reached the water, Jyn was so thirsty she thought she would die. Except, of course, she was already dead.

She used a shell to scoop water into her mouth as she lay on her belly and dangled over the edge of the makeshift well she and Cassian had built. Cassian did the same, making a contented little sound when at last he swallowed water. They drank for a long time, until Jyn finally set her face down sideways on the hot sand and shut her eyes.

"We are not dead," Cassian declared. "We have… gone somewhere. I have no idea what has happened, Jyn, but we are not dead."

"I know." She breathed in and out a few times, feeling the warm air in her lungs. She registered the feel of the sand on her cheek, of the sunlight baking her skin. She nearly fell asleep then, overwhelmed by the fatigue of battle and of digging, by her confusion and her grief.

"Cassian? Jyn? What a bizarre set of circumstances this is. I must admit, I never saw this scenario coming. Not ever."

Jyn's eyes flew open, and she shaded her face from the sun to see K-2SO looming over her. As she scrambled to her feet, Cassian embraced the droid around his middle, sending K-2SO staggering back a bit. K-2SO tapped Cassian's back and said blandly,

"There, there."

"I thought you were destroyed!" Jyn exclaimed. K-2SO looked down at himself, at his fingers and his feet, and he shrugged.

"It would appear as though I was not destroyed. At first I assumed a reprogramming, but then I found you two lying on the sand here. I can not seem to find the base…"

"The base is gone, Kay," Cassian said gravely. "Everything's gone. It's like the place has been… I don't know… reset. Like nobody ever built anything here, or fought any battles here."

"And we're the only ones left," Jyn added. K-2SO tipped his head and said in a condescending tone,

"What a silly thing to assume. If I found you two, what's to say there aren't more… survivors?"

Jyn looked at Cassian then, feeling alarmed. She shook her head and gulped.

"I want to know what's going on here," she said softly. Cassian nodded, but K-2SO said,

"First thing's first. Scarif experiences heavy rainfall nearly every day around sunset. There are dark clouds on the horizon. Does anyone have any ideas for shelter?"

When Jyn and Cassian stayed silent, K-2SO sighed,

"No, I didn't think so. Well, we can either sit out in the rain, or we can begin assembling materials. Actually, let's not make that 'sitting out' part a choice, shall we? I'll start gathering palm fronds."

He walked off then, his footsteps heavy on the sand. Jyn put her hands on Cassian's shoulders and stared up into his dark eyes.

"We are going to figure out what's happened," she declared, "and somehow, in the not very distant future, we will be somewhere comfortable and safe."

Cassian choked out a little laugh and shook his head. He dragged the pad of his thumb under Jyn's eye and asked quietly,

"Have you ever been anywhere comfortable and safe, Jyn Erso?"

"Not really," she said with a little smile, "but seeing as I'm still not entirely convinced I'm alive at all, I'm willing to be a bit optimistic. To have a bit of hope."

Cassian looked at her for a long moment, his lips parting a little as though there was something he wanted to say. Before he could, K-2SO barked at them,

"Survival supplies do not gather themselves, so come help me. Thank you very much."

* * *

"Kay, it doesn't need to be quite that tall."

"Yes, it does. I'm that tall."

"You can stoop down. That's a waste of materials."

Jyn rolled her eyes and smirked at the banter between Cassian and K-2SO. She pushed through a cluster of dense jungle greenery and glanced around, looking for reeds or sticks or anything firm enough to bolster their shelter. Suddenly she ran smack into something hard, and she gasped when she saw what her boots had hit.

It was a crate made from durasteel, only slightly dulled but looking mostly new. Jyn's eyes went wide when she saw the distinctive round symbol plastered on every side of the cube. It was the symbol of the Old Republic. Jyn crouched down, her breath catching in her chest as she unlatched the crate and pried it open. Then she just stared, for the amount of supplies in the crate was absolutely staggering.

Jyn's fingers shook like mad as she took containers and boxes and vessels out of the crate. She read labels as she went and took a mental inventory. A 4000-pack of desalination tablets. Ration bars. Nutrient tabs. Bread powder. Five compressed sleeping sacks. A medical kit with everything from bacta gel strips to Nyex and phosovane salts. Three solar-charged lanterns. A waterproof tarp. Five blasters.

Jyn tried to call out to Cassian and K-2, but she could not quite find her voice. She picked up one of the small ration bars, the kind that would fuel a human for four days, and turned it over, confused by the Republic marks on it. There was a small holodoc inside the case, and Jyn figured it would be long dead. She pulled it out of the crate and pressed the power button, shocked when the screen illuminated and words came clearly into view.

In the case of the discovery of Separatist forces on Scarif, contact High General Ki-Adi-Mundi or Clone Commander 2224 using your battalion's subspace transceiver.

Jyn froze. Clone Commander? This supply crate was from the Clone Wars? She set the holodoc down and picked up the ration bar again. This food had to be over twenty years old, Jyn realized. Surely it wasn't any good anymore. With her fingers trembling terribly, Jyn tore open the packaging and tentatively sniffed the ration bar. It didn't smell like anything, but, then, ration bars never did. There was no mold, no rot. It was still chewy in her mouth when she was brave enough to bite it. There was no sour or acerbic taste to indicate it had gone off.

Jyn swallowed the ration bar and pulled herself to stand on shaking legs. She peered through the trees, back to the place where the Imperial base had been. She saw only beach there. It was as if they had come to another time. She looked at the other bite of ration in her hand and studied it again. Then she ate it and put the lid back on the supply crate, turning on her heels and marching back to where Cassian and K-2SO were working on a shelter.

"Hello, boys," she said nervously. Cassian turned from where he was knitting palm fronds together, frowning when he saw Jyn's face.

"You've gone exceptionally pale," K-2 noted. "Has something more extraordinary than usual happened?"

"I found something," Jyn said simply. "You two should come and have a look."

* * *

"When I first suggested time travel, you insisted that there was no such thing," Cassian reminded Jyn.

"I know." She sipped clean water from a canteen they'd found in the crate and passed it to Cassian. K-2SO was sitting beneath the waterproof tarp, which was probably smart given that the sky had gone dark and was threatening rain any moment. The lantern between Cassian and Jyn flickered on automatically. Cassian sighed and chewed at his ration bar.

"Nothing in that crate seems twenty years old," he said, and once again Jyn nodded.

"I know."

"The Imperial base is gone," Cassian mused, and Jyn scoffed.

"It doesn't exist yet. There is no Empire. Not yet."

"So, are we dead or not?" Cassian asked, taking another bite of ration bar. Jyn shook her head helplessly and shrugged. She studied Cassian's rugged face, his sharp features and his glittering dark eyes. She remembered the way it had felt to be snared up against him at the moment the shockwave had hit, and she whispered,

"I think I'm alive, Cassian. I feel… rather alive."

"So do I," he admitted. The rain started then, a gentle fall of water from the dark sky that danced against the palms overhead and speckled the lantern's glass. When it began to rain harder, K-2 called from the shelter,

"Do I need to start rattling off odds of lightning strikes or discussing the merits of dry clothing?"

Cassian rolled his eyes and said, "I'm not dead. Nobody would torment me with that in any afterlife."

Jyn giggled a bit and crawled across the sand with Cassian toward the shelter. The waterproof tarp was large enough to cover them, but to stay dry, she and Cassian had to huddle toward the back. K-2SO was enormous, which didn't help the situation, but he seemed to neither notice nor care about his size. He crouched rather awkwardly in the corner and said,

"I have been thinking."

"No," Cassian said with mock disbelief. K-2 waited a moment and then said crisply,

"The odds of time travel being a plausible reality are infinitesimally small."

"Do you have a better explanation, K?" Cassian demanded. "You were killed on the Imperial base. Jyn and I watched the explosion from the Death Star. We were hit by the shockwave, then everything was peaceful and all the evidence of war was gone. There's a supply crate with fresh materials dated twenty years into the past. Do you have a more likely scenario in mind, K? What are Jyn and I missing here?"

At first, K-2SO said nothing. Then at last he said in a less biting tone than usual, "My power supply is at nine percent, Cassian. I am going to go into rest mode until the sun comes back up, at which point I will recharge with solar power for approximately ten hours. Please be aware that my functionality will be minimal until I have recharged."

"Understood," Cassian nodded. K-2 situated himself more firmly in the corner of the shelter. As his illuminated eyes went dark and his body went utterly still, his mechanical voice said,

"Goodnight, probably-dead-people."

Jyn couldn't help but giggle again at that, even though what was in question was whether she and Cassian were souls lost in some sort of bizarre afterlife. Finally she managed to get herself burrowed into a sleeping sack atop the sand. Cassian put the lantern at their feet and pulled himself into the bag beside Jyn's. She listened to the rain for a long time, until she finally convinced herself to look Cassian in the eyes. She was so close to him now, almost as close as she'd been when they'd…

"We died on that beach, Cassian," Jyn insisted, still unable to calibrate any reality beside that. She heard her own voice crack as very unwelcome tears welled up in her eyes. "There was a battle. There was a base. There was a strike from the Death Star. And we died."

"Jyn," Cassian whispered back, his voice barely audible over the pattering of the rain, "Don't you think that if you were dead, you would get to see your father and your mother? I have people I'd like to see, too."

"Do you suppose it works like that when you die?" Jyn asked, honestly not knowing the answer. Cassian didn't answer for a moment. He seemed to be studying Jyn's face the way she'd done to him earlier. Finally he murmured,

"You wanted to wind up somewhere comfortable and safe."

"I still do," Jyn nodded, her skin swishing a little against the material of the sleeping sack's pillow. Cassian smirked at her, his eyes shining even in the dim light from the lantern.

"This probably isn't what you had in mind," he mused. "A makeshift tent on a rainy beach that was, earlier today, a battlefield. Do you feel comfortable and safe, Jyn Erso?"

"I did," she said truthfully, speaking before she could think, "when we held one another on that beach. When we died together, Cassian. I felt very comfortable with your arms around me, and mine around you. And I did feel safe."

Suddenly his mischievous dark eyes went visibly wet, and his throat bobbed a little. He nodded against the pillow of his own sleep sack, and he admitted, "I was more than happy to die there with you. I liked it. The feel of holding you. Of you holding me. I liked it, Jyn."

"Perhaps… perhaps we could do that again now," Jyn suggested cautiously. She unzipped her sleeping sack and avoided Cassian's eyes as she murmured, "I believe you can attach two of these together."

"I would sleep better," Cassian told her, latching the zippers together and yanking upward. Suddenly Jyn found herself scooting toward him, feeling his left arm lacing around her body. She put her right arm over his waist, pressing her palm against his back, and she touched her forehead to his chest.

Then she shut her eyes and felt very comfortable, and very safe. She knew so little about Cassian. She knew that he had joined the Rebel Alliance as a child, that his life had been spent as a spy and a soldier. She knew that he was intelligent but hot-headed, but she knew very little about him as a man.

"What's your favorite food in the entire galaxy?" she whispered, and she felt his laughter rumble through his chest as Cassian replied,

"I had a crab-stuffed cream puff on Mon Calamari that was really delicious. I'd eat that a thousand times over. You?"

Jyn shut her eyes and smiled to herself, remembering the smell of her mother's kitchen on Lah'mu. She said confidently, "My favorite food is bantha stew with shallots."

"Do I get to ask a question now?" Cassian teased, and Jyn nodded against his chest. She breathed in his metallic, leather-bound scent again, and she listened as he asked, "Do you believe in second chances?"

Jyn's breath caught in her throat as she contemplated her answer. She tried not to cry, tried and failed to sound steely, as she said, "I should hope so. I would have liked for my father to have a real second chance."

Then she paused, for she was doing a bit of calculation in her mind. She pulled back from Cassian's chest and looked up at him, and she said in a rushed whisper,

"If we are indeed in the time of the Clone Wars, then my father is alive. My mother. I might… I could see them."

Cassian raised his eyebrows and looked rather sad. "Even if we were in the past, how would that work? Do you see a ship? What would you say to them if you found them? You know how stories go, whenever traveling through time is mentioned. Change the past…"

"Erase the future." Jyn frowned and shut her eyes. She shook her head and insisted, "If my parents are out there, I want to find them."

"Of course you do," Cassian said. "So many people we would love to see again. But, alas, here we are. Lying on sand under a rainproof tarp. Lucky to have found ration bars. We are definitely not in possession of a ship, and even if we were…"

"Erase the future," Jyn repeated. She met Cassian's eyes and noted, "All of this is, of course, assuming that we are not dead. And I am still… it's just… I know I died with you on that beach."

Cassian smirked. "I'll bet if I kissed you right now you'd become convinced you weren't dead."

Jyn's mouth fell open and she laughed as she countered, "I'll bet if I slapped your cheek right now, you'd feel it, alive or dead."

Cassian smiled, but then he dug his teeth into his lip and said, "Do you know what the most beautiful thing I've ever seen is?"

Jyn's chest twisted oddly then, and she shook her head. "No. What is it?"

Cassian licked his bottom lip and measured his words. "After I shot Krennic, and I saw you out on that catwalk… I had no idea then that we would be swallowed whole by the shockwave, you know? And so I saw you, injured and angry, and I met your eyes, and I thought to myself… if I make it out of here alive, I'm going to kiss that beautiful woman."

Jyn shut her eyes, feeling very dizzy even though she was lying down. She thought of the sight of Cassian falling when they'd retrieved the Death Star plans. Her stomach had flopped at the sight of him lying still and quiet. She thought of the way he'd seemed to her after shooting Krennic - like a hero, like the only real friend she'd ever had, like a handsome man that she wanted to know better. She thought of the feel of him on the beach when the light and heat had been racing toward them.

"There's only one problem," Jyn whispered, reaching on impulse to drag her knuckles over his scruff.

"What's that?" Cassian asked, and Jyn sighed as she heard the rain fall harder than ever.

"You don't know if you made it out alive."

"If I try and find out," Cassian began, cupping Jyn's jaw and pulling her toward him a little, "are you going to slap me?"

Jyn just shook her head, unable to even say the word 'no' for how much her heart had begun to race. Then, suddenly and pleasantly, her lips were on his. Cassian pressed his mouth against Jyn's in a gentle, almost soothing way, and she could not help but kiss him back rather eagerly. Before she knew what was happening, she was flush against him, feeling his tongue run over the roof of her mouth, pulling his bottom lip between her teeth. Her hand tightened against his scruff, and his fingers danced anxiously through her hair. When Jyn finally had the presence of mind to pull away, she shook her head, convinced the entire planet had turned upside-down.

"Not dead," she muttered frantically. "That shockwave came and everything disappeared, but… no, I am not dead."

She knew because of the thrumming in her chest, the way her breath came quickly through her clenched teeth. She knew because of the heat and tension in her body, and because of the way Cassian was staring at her. His throat bobbed again and he nodded.

"I agree," he said, his voice shaking a little, "and if we are dead, and that is what happens to dead people, I am not going to complain."

Jyn shut her eyes and managed to actually think for a moment. "Kay-Tu found you and me," she noted. "There have to be others. There must be. We'll find them. We'll start looking in the morning."

"That sounds like a good plan," Cassian said. "In the meantime, can I try my best to make this little shelter comfortable and safe for you?"

Jyn smiled sadly at him and nodded. "It won't take much," she assured him. She rotated so that her back was to him, and she let him pull her back against his body. He threaded an arm around her, and she felt him kiss her hair.

Somehow, despite her very mortality being in question, Jyn managed to sleep. She managed to fall asleep there in the shelter on the rain-drenched sand, wrapped up in Cassian the way she'd been on the beach where they had died together.

* * *

"How long will he have to spend recharging?" Jyn asked tersely, looking down to where K-2SO lay prone on the sand. His solar panels had been pulled from his trunk and were soaking in power. From behind her, where he was packing materials back into the supply crate, Cassian said,

"Six more hours. We'll just have to wait."

Jyn let out an impatient huff and started walking around the immediate vicinity. She studied the palm trees, the low plants, and the sand, looking for any sign at all of the battle that had raged the day before.

"It feels like nobody's ever been here at all," Jyn noted. She turned to look at Cassian, who frowned and shrugged as he said,

"I think we need to stop thinking so hard. We have no way of getting off this planet, let alone of getting any definitive answers."

Jyn opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, a man's voice said,

"Fine, then. I'll give you credit this time, Chirrut. You were right."

Jyn whirled and gasped, for Baze Maldus and Chirrut Imwe were walking toward them. Both men looked clean and freshly clothed, just like Cassian and Jyn had when they'd 'awakened' on the beach. Baze pulled a supply crate identical to the one Jyn had found, using a makeshift net of palm fronds to drag it over the sand. Jyn just stared, but Cassian rushed over and put his hands on Chirrut's shoulders.

"You're both alive, too. Or… dead, too. We're not sure."

"We are not dead," Chirrut said confidently. "The Force is still with me; I can still feel its power. I can still feel stirrings of souls, from everyone here. Even your recharging droid."

Baze Malbus rolled his eyes and sighed. "All I know is that I was shot to bits, and then I wasn't. It was like waking from a nightmare, except I'd lost my repeater cannon."

"Sorry to hear that," Jyn said on instinct. Then she gestured to their supply crate and asked, "Did your crate have blasters in it?"

"Yeah. Puny little ones," Baze complained. His face shifted a bit then. "Everything in this crate is from the Clone Wars. None of it is expired."

"We figured out the same thing," Cassian nodded. He looked around the sandy little forest in which they stood and declared, "Something very strange has happened to us all, and I have no idea how to figure out what that was."

"Is it really so important to know?" Chirrut demanded. Jyn frowned at the blind monk, who gave a serene little smile and shrugged. "I died in the arms of Baze Malbus. I remember that vividly. It can not be said that I did not die. And, yet, here I stand, alive. Not in some sort of existence that follows death. We died. And we are alive. Does the why or the how matter nearly as much as that simple fact?"

"Of course it does," Baze said gruffly. "The base, the walkers, the battle all disappeared, Chirrut. And now we have supply crates, fresh and new and from the past. You think the why of that does not matter?"

"Do you suspect what we do?" Jyn asked. "Do you think we were all somehow… thrown through time when the weapon struck?"

Baze hesitated for a moment and then asked, "How did you die, Jyn?"

Jyn blinked quickly. She glanced up at Cassian and then back to Baze. "We transmitted the Death Star plans to the Rebel Alliance. The Death Star hit the planet; Cassian and I were standing on a beach when the shockwave washed over us."

"And then?" Baze asked in a clip. Cassian replied,

"And then it was quiet and peaceful for a moment… and everything shifted . We did not move, not physically. We never lost consciousness. But after the shockwave, the battle disappeared. The base disappeared. We were wearing new clothes. But we never moved."

"Oh, yes, you did," Chirrut insisted. He leaned on a bamboo pole, which Jyn figured he must have acquired because his old staff was gone. Chirrut's milky eyes glinted a little, and he mused, "Ships go so quickly through space. Over enormous distance. You think the Force can not also move us through time?"

"This has nothing to do with the damned Force!" Baze cried, and Chirrut reached to rub Baze's shoulder a little.

"You do not know, and neither do I," Chirrut said in a soothing voice. "But anything is possible."

"So what do we do now?" Jyn demanded. She gestured around and pointed out, "We have some twenty-year-old supplies and each other. But we have no ship. We have no subspace transceiver. How do we leave? How do we get off this planet?"

"Is that such an important goal?" asked Chirrut. He laughed a little and dragged his bamboo pole over the sand as he said, "There is fresh water if you dig. There is food if you look properly. We have materials to shelter. Why must we leave?"

Jyn growled a little, feeling frustrated. "You want us to spend the rest of our lives marooned here?"

"There was no 'rest of our lives,'" Chirrut pointed out. "We all died. This is all… a bonus."

"A bonus," Baze repeated, shaking his head. "What sort of bonus doesn't involve my repeater cannon?"

Jyn couldn't help but smile at that. Cassian looked at the other three, then back to where K-2 was recharging on the ground. He sighed and said,

"I suppose we ought to go ahead and set up some kind of camp, then."

"A village," Jyn corrected him. While Cassian and Baze frowned curiously at her, Chirrut gave a knowing little smile. Jyn clarified, "Others might come. K-2 found us. You found us. Maybe Bodhi's out there. Others. We'll set up a village, and if others come, it will grow."

"And what will we name our little village?" Chirrut asked. Jyn swallowed hard and said simply,

"Rogue. It will be called Rogue, because I don't think any of us have ever followed rules very well, but now we seem to be ignoring them entirely."

* * *

The next two weeks were spent settling into a strange little routine. Every other morning at sunrise, K-2SO went to the well that had been dug into the lens of fresh water, and he filled up four large canisters. On the alternating days, Jyn took two jugs to the ocean and, using a desalination tablet in each, made them potable. The group ate ration bars every four days, and on the fifth and sixth days, they harvested coconuts and wild tropical fruits, which they ate with bread powder. They slept in two shelters, with K-2 going into rest mode in the shelter where Jyn and Cassian slept. The other shelter was for Baze and Chirrut, along with the supply crates.

They spent their time playing some familiar board games that they'd crafted from stones and lines in the sand and leaves. They talked about everything. Chirrut lectured about the Force, Baze told harrowing tales of his life as a freelance assassin, Jyn discussed what it had been like to be passed around and never feel grounded, and Cassian told stories of the Alliance in its early years. They sang songs, teaching each other tunes they'd all picked up through the years.

One afternoon, as the sky was beginning to cloud up with the impending nightly rainstorm, everyone sat in a circle and munched on the ration bars that would sustain them for the next four days. They'd been discussing the traditions of dancing on various planets, and K-2SO declared,

"I find dancing to be among the sillier activities that humans enjoy."

"That's because if you danced, it would look like you were having a seizure," Baze Malbus declared. Jyn stifled a laugh as K-2 said indignantly,

"I can not have a seizure. And I have absolutely no interest in dancing. I'd like to see you be elegant. Would you like to know the odds of you looking elegant under any circumstance, Baze Malbus?"

Baze chuckled and shook his head. "I'm sure those odds are very long. What about you, Jyn? Do you dance?"

Jyn's eyebrows flew up, and she shook her head. "I certainly don't make a habit of it."

"I do," Cassian said casually. Jyn looked at him in surprise, and he grinned around the circle as he took the last bite of his ration bar. He said rather proudly, "I've danced the Boxnov Three-Step more times than I can count. There are many cantinas in the galaxy, you know."

"Ah… the Boxnov Three-Step," Chirrut Imwe nodded. "I have heard the music for it many times. Beautiful."

"How does it go?" Jyn asked curiously. Chirrut's glazed eyes crinkled, and he suggested,

"I will sing it, and Cassian will show you how to do the dance."

"Oh, no." Jyn shook her head vigorously. "I told you. I don't dance."

"I predict that you will learn quickly," K-2 declared in a rare compliment. Jyn's mouth fell open, and before she knew what was happening, she was being hauled to her feet by Cassian and swept into a formal-feeling stance. Cassian wrapped his right arm around Jyn, letting his palm rest between her shoulder blades. He took her right hand in his left, snaring his fingers around hers and holding their arms out a bit.

"Everything happens in threes," he explained, but Jyn smirked and shook her head.

"I don't dance," she repeated. Baze Malbus bellowed a laugh and said,

"You do now, Jyn. Go on, Chirrut. Sing!"

Chirrut laughed low in his throat and then began to sing a lilting, rhythmic song that felt more like a lullaby than a dance tune.

" First I went to the ends of my home, then I circled round again. When the land disappeared into sky, I let down my shields and my ship hurtled high into the clouds, then into the black. And I knew that I would never in a hundred thousand lifetimes come back… "

Jyn tried to listen to Chirrut's singing, but found it difficult given the way that Cassian had started to guide her movements. Her feet were clumsy, from the sand and from inexperience, but Cassian's hand pressed more firmly on her back as he moved her. Forward, to the side, back, to the side… their feet made a sort of square, lingering on a spot for two beats before moving on. Cassian lowered his lips to Jyn's ear and whispered,

"One, two, three. One, two, three. One, two, three… you feel it?"

"I feel it," Jyn nodded breathlessly, for she had indeed begun to feel the natural pulse of the dance. The first gentle raindrops of the nightly deluge began to trickle from the sky, and Chirrut's somber, soulful voice finished the song.

" And, no, I'll never come back here, but I will go on without your fear. "

After the words ended, the rain started falling a bit harder. Cassian did not release Jyn, and she stared up at him in the dimming light. Baze Malbus muttered,

"Well, I think that's our cue, Chirrut. Rain. Dancing. Let's go to our shelter, hmm?"

Jyn blinked quickly, still staring at Cassian, but she had the presence of mind to say quietly, "Goodnight, Baze. Goodnight, Chirrut."

K-2SO rose to his enormous height and said crisply, "I, too, will retire now, seeing as how the odds of you two -"

"Enough, Kay-Tu. Goodnight," Cassian said, his eyes locked on Jyn's. "Put yourself in rest mode, will you?"

"Oh, yes. I will make myself blissfully unaware of anything happening in my shelter. Good evening to you both."

Jyn knew the droid was mocking them, that the other two men had sensed what she did now. She wanted Cassian. She'd liked the feel of him holding her ever since he'd first done it weeks earlier. She'd liked the feel of him kissing her when he'd done that, too. But now, as she stood poised to dance with no music, she found that she wanted Cassian very badly indeed.

"Tell me again what your father used to say about men," Cassian said quietly, his black hair and his chiseled face getting soaked by the warm rain. Jyn let out a shaking sigh and said,

"He told me that some men only want a woman for her body. He told me to find someone who wanted me for my soul. He told me to watch out for rogues."

"Rogues," Cassian repeated, nodding. "I am a rogue. Are you watching out for me, Jyn?"

"Perhaps not in the way my father meant it," Jyn said. She shut her eyes and thought hard. She had a contraceptive arm implant, placed at the insistence of Saw Gerrera when she was thirteen years old. There were certain men in his ranks that Saw just didn't trust around a blossoming young woman, he'd said. That had always made Jyn feel a little frightened, though it had done more to spur her to learn to defend herself against a physical attack. The implant would need to be removed by a surgical droid if she ever wanted children. Right now, right this very minute, Jyn could go into her shelter with Cassian and do the sorts of things her father had warned her about.

A small part of her thought that was silly, but a much larger part of her screamed for it. She let go of Cassian's hand and put both her palms on his rain-soaked scruff, and she looked him straight in his dark eyes.

"I stopped caring a week ago," she informed him. When he seemed confused, she clarified, "I stopped caring whether we're alive or dead, or what year it is, or whether the Empire exists, or about the Death Star plans. Do you know why I stopped caring, Cassian?"

"Why did you stop caring?" he asked, lowering his head and touching his forehead to hers. Jyn swallowed past the lump in her throat and said,

"I stopped caring because… I am with friends. I am with you . And I am comfortable, and I feel safe."

"And isn't that all you ever wanted?" Cassian asked, smiling a little. Jyn let out a choked little laugh and nodded.

"Right this moment, I think I would be more comfortable in the shelter… out of these wet clothes, preferably."

"Well, Jyn Erso," Cassian grinned, his voice low and smooth and punctuated by the sound of the rain, "I want you to be comfortable. Let's go."


	2. Chapter 2

"I can't." Jyn shook her head as she stared at K-2SO. The droid's eyes were dark and he was unmoving, but it didn't matter. It didn't matter that Chirrut couldn't see; he was less than fifteen feet away with Baze. Jyn turned and gave Cassian an apologetic look where he stood. He smiled knowingly and murmured,

"In another time. In another place. I'm still going to take this wet shirt off, though."

"That's fine." Jyn crouched down and pulled off her boots, slithering into her sleeping sack and waiting for Cassian to join her. The sleeping sacks were not zipped together; they hadn't been since the others had arrived. Jyn thought perhaps it was best for tonight that they leave the sacks separated. She was not entirely certain that her logical hesitation would overwhelm the way she wanted Cassian.

She lay on her back and stared up at the black tarp, wondering if her mother and father were really out there somewhere. More importantly, if they really had been transported to the time of the Clone Wars, where were they ? Surely there could not be two Jyn Ersos in existence at once, nor two Cassian Andors. Jyn frowned up at the tarp and said suddenly,

"Parallel."

"What?" Cassian sounded confused as he tucked himself into his sleeping sack. Jyn turned her face toward him, her heart accelerating a little.

"We haven't gone straight backwards," she said. "That couldn't be possible. Erasing the future and all that. But… my father was a scientist. He told me once, a long time ago, that there is a theory among scientists. A theory of parallels."

Cassian furrowed his brows and pushed up onto one elbow. He scratched at his black hair and asked, "You mean worlds existing side-by-side?"

Jyn nodded and gulped. "Infinite iterations of the same scenario. Permutations of outcomes. That's exactly what he called it… the Theory of Parallel Permutations."

Cassian sat upright now and looked very serious. "So you mean to suggest that when that shockwave hit us, we were tossed into some… parallel existence?"

Jyn nodded frantically, pushing her own body up. "I think we're in another permutation. Think about it. There were names on the supplies in the crates. Mentions of clone commanders. But there were no years, were there? Did you see any use-by dates on any of the packages?"

"No," Cassian admitted, "but the boxes had the symbol of the Old Republic, which hasn't existed for -"

"It hasn't existed for some time in the permutation that we knew." Jyn's voice began to shake as her mind whirled. "Who's to say the Clone Wars ended the same way in this permutation? Who's to say we went through time at all?"

"Jyn, you're scaring me a little bit," Cassian said slowly. "Are you feeling all right?"

She heaved herself up, knowing distantly that she was the only one out of the group who could pace upright in the shelter. She put her hands on her hips and nodded vigorously as she said,

"It's not possible to have your body present twice-over in the same moment. Your body, your soul, is finite and one. There can not be two Jyn Ersos in the galaxy at once. Not in the same permutation. And I was alive at the end of the Clone Wars. You were, too. So, the only logical explanation is that -"

"We were never born," Cassian frowned. "None of us. At least not in this permutation."

"Right." Jyn nodded and felt dizzy all of a sudden. "We've been… introduced here. Who knows what's going on beyond this planet?"

Cassian stared at her for a long moment, and then he yelled suddenly, "Chirrut! Baze! You'd better come in here."

* * *

"Same supplies as the other one."

"But he's no clone. And no Jedi."

"No matter; we'll bring them all in for assessment."

Jyn's eyes snapped open at the sound of mechanical voices. She snatched her blaster from the sand beside her and whispered furtively,

"Cassian! Wake up!"

She moved as quickly and silently as she could out of the shelter and held her blaster before her. Her eyes searched the darkness, and beside her, she her Chirrut Imwe say,

"Lower the blaster, Jyn; theirs are much larger."

"What?" Jyn asked, but then a red bolt of light came soaring at her and hit her blaster. It shattered, and Jyn's hand seared with pain from the heat and the impact. She gasped as two beige droids came ambling forward.

"Nice shot," one said to the other. Suddenly there was chaos; Cassian and Baze were dashing from their shelters and had their blasters shot out from their hands the same way Jyn had. The two beige droids gave one another a congratulatory nod. Then K-2SO, who had apparently been booted back into his active mode, held up a lantern to cast some more light on the situation.

"Separatist battle droids," he noted, and Jyn turned her face to Cassian. He had adopted a defensive sort of stance, as if he were ready for a fight.

"This will result is far less bloodshed if we simply go with them," said Chirrut. Baze opened his mouth to protest, but Chirrut added, "Remember, my friends, that we all had no lives to lose."

Jyn's stomach churned, but she nodded to Baze and Cassian.

"I don't want to go with these two," said K-2SO, and one of the battle droids informed him,

"You are easily destroyed. You have many weak spots. Come with us or we will turn you into scrap."

"And where, precisely, are we going?" Jyn asked carefully. One of the droids made a motion that vaguely resembled a shrug, and he said,

"We have orders to execute any clone troopers. You all look different. Not clones. But using clone trooper materials, so you're coming with us."

"You mentioned another," Jyn said, keeping her voice level. "I heard you say that we were using the same supplies as another person. Who is that?"

"None of your business," said one battle droid, and the other said,

"Come with us."

Jyn glanced over her shoulder at the little village they'd made. She looked out into the dark blue light that came before the sunrise. She remembered the battle here, transmitting the Death Star plans, standing with Cassian on the beach. She remembered dying. And she heeded Chirrut's words as she and the others were led, blasters aimed at them, to a landing craft on the beach.

The landing craft ascended through Scarif's atmosphere and docked inside of a frightening-looking dreadnought. The enormous carrier was hovering well beyond Scarif, in a desolate-seeming part of the Outer Rim. Jyn, Cassian, Baze, and Chirrut were led in handcuffs through the corridors of the dreadnought to a series of cells on an empty deck.

Jyn froze when she saw the figure sitting on a bench in one of the cells.

"Bodhi!" she called. He turned his head and his eyes went wide and round. He flew from the bench and held fast to the durasteel bars on the cell.

"You're all alive!" he marveled. "I thought I died. In an explosion. I could have sworn I died. I don't recognize anything here; do any of you -"

"Let us stay calm and quiet for now," Chirrut suggested. Bodhi looked frightened but nodded.

"Two in this one and two in this one," said a male Neimoidian who had accompanied the prisoners from the landing craft. A battle droid urged Baze and Chirrut into one cell, and Jyn followed Cassian into the other. There were solid ferroconcrete walls between the cells, so they couldn't see the others, but Jyn knew they would all be able to hear one another speak through the open cell fronts. She said nothing as the Neimoidian stepped into the cell and opened hers and Cassian's handcuffs. Cassian did speak, however. He looked the Neimoidian right in his scarlet eyes and demanded,

"For what crime are we being held? Where are we being taken? Who wants us as prisoners?"

It might have seemed like a lot of petulant questioning, but Jyn knew that Cassian was just trying to get their bearings. She could hardly blame him. The Neimodian's large crimson eyes narrowed a bit, and he said,

"Count Dooku is conducting an extensive survey of planets in the Outer Rim. If they are inhabited by anyone using supplies from the Grand Army of the Republic, those individuals are to be taken for questioning to ensure… proper loyalty. We know the Jedi have been scattering supplies on empty planets. You will tell our interrogator droids how you go to Scarif and why you had supplies from the Republic in your possession."

"And then we will be released?" Cassian asked, throwing his dark eyebrows up. The Neimoidian did not answer. He backed out of the cell and pressed his green hand to a pad on the wall. The door of durasteel bars slammed shut. It seemed like the Neimoidian was repeating the process in the cell that contained Baze and Chirrut, though the others did not protest. Once the cells were closed, the Neimoidian and the two battle droids started to leave.

"You will be brought food and water later," the Neimoidian called over his shoulder. Once he'd gone, Jyn went straight to the door and whispered,

"Bodhi. Tell me what happened."

Cassian joined her at the door, and Jyn was sure that Baze and Chirrut were listening, too.

"The ship exploded," Bodhi said in a confused voice. My ears rang and everything was hot and white. Then, suddenly, I was lying on sand. The ship was gone. Everything was gone. I wandered for two days, certain I was going to die of thirst. I finally found a supply crate with Old Republic symbols all over it. I survived off of what was in there. Two days ago, some battle droids showed up and took me hostage."

Jyn sighed. "Pretty similar stories over here, I'm afraid."

She took a moment and tried to explain as briefly as possible her notion that they were in a parallel existence. Bodhi said nothing for a while, and Jyn finally asked,

"What do you think?"

"I still think I'm dead," Bodhi admitted, "but your version sounds nice, too."

"We need a consistent story for when we're interrogated," Baze Malbus said from Jyn's right. "We are pirates. We are a band of pirates. Our ship lost steering control and crashed into the water on Scarif. Bodhi washed up in a different spot from the rest of us. We all stumbled upon supplies from the Republic, which we obviously used since everything else we had was at the bottom of the sea."

Jyn nodded to Cassian, who said firmly, "That's the story, then. We're a band of pirates."

They spent the next few minutes ensuring they had corroborating details in line. Their ship had been a Lethisk -class armed freighter. They had been scouting out Scarif for any isolated villages they might plunder, but the freighter had lost steering control on the descent. They had known one another for five years. They called themselves the Rogues. They had no political affiliation regarding Separatists or the Republic.

It was good, probably, that they sorted all of that out as quickly as possible, because once they'd done so, a male human came striding into the space before the cells. He had gilded rings around his neck, and his head had been shaved to reveal icy-white skin. He looked left and right at all three of the cells, and then his eyes settled on Jyn. He gave her a single nod and said in little more than a whisper,

"Ladies first. I have some questions for you."

* * *

 **Chapter 5** **: For Whom Do You Fight?** **Notes:**

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

 **Chapter Text**

"Is this strictly necessary?" Jyn asked, looking around the bright white room into which she had been led. There were terrifying-looking metal instruments on the walls, all of which consisted almost entirely of mirrors. The pale bald man who had cuffed her in her cell and led her here said nothing. He opened her cuffs and put them on a counter nearby, and he gestured silently to a white leather chair in the center of the room.

Jyn sat, unsure of what else to do. She eyed the bald man, who wore a crisp gray uniform emblazoned with the Separatist symbol. Jyn frowned as she realized how much the symbol resembled the side of a TIE Fighter. The pale bald man stood in front of Jyn's chair and said in his low, gravelly voice,

"My name is Captain Krybus Rastin. I have been with the Confederation for twenty years. This Dreadnought is my command. Why don't you tell me a bit about yourself? My conversation droid here will help you."

He pulled something down then, a set of handles upon which was mounted an oval-shaped white metal droid. It had an obvious camera, along with several red light scanners and a screen that Jyn knew was a vitals detector. Conversation droid was an exceptionally generous name for this machine, she thought. She knew at once what it was. It was a lie detector. Jyn felt very nervous all of a sudden.

"Will you be so kind as to introduce yourself?" Krybus Rastin asked with feigned politeness. He crossed his arms over his chest and studied Jyn's face as she said,

"My name is Jyn Erso. I am… twenty-two years of age. I have no political association with either the Separatists or the Republic."

"What did you call us?" Rastin asked, furrowing his brows deeply. Suddenly Jyn's heart began to race with fear, and the 'conversation droid' registered the uptick in her pulse with a series of soft beeps.

"Some people refer to the Confederation as… as Separatists," Jyn said, and Rastin's eyes narrowed.

"No one has used that term for more than fifteen years, to the best of my knowledge. You claim to have no association with the old Republican cause, but that doesn't seem right. Answer me directly: are you a spy or soldier for Grand Master Yoda?"

"Yoda?" Jyn repeated, shaking her head vehemently. Her mother had mentioned a great Jedi named Yoda to her before, a long time ago, but only in a way that made him seem like a character in a fairy tale. Jyn gripped the arms of the chair and insisted, "No. I've never met Yoda; I certainly don't fight for him."

"For whom do you fight?" Krybus Rastin demanded, and Jyn answered as honestly as she could.

"For myself. For my friends."

"All of you were discussing an agreed-upon story in the cells," Rastin noted, pacing a little. Jyn shut her eyes. They should have known there would be microphones bugging the area around the cells. Rastin continued, "You all agreed to say you were pirates. That, clearly, is a lie, isn't it?"

Jyn said nothing. She opened her eyes and stared defiantly at Krybus Rastin. How could she possibly explain the truth to him? His pale eyebrows raised, and he tipped his head as he said,

"I would very much prefer not to make pain a part of this experience. But the truth will out."

Jyn took a shaking breath and shook her head. All she could do now was lie and endure whatever he threw at her. She tried to convince herself as she spoke. "My friends and I are pirates. We were traveling on an old freighter, scouting out Scarif. It crashed into the sea, and we found supplies bearing the mark of the Republic."

The 'conversation droid' whirred and then beeped loudly. A red light at its top illuminated, and Krybus Rastin said in an amused voice,

"It would appear as though you've lied, Jyn Erso. How did you and your friends get to Scarif?"

Jyn shut her eyes and shook her head. "You're right. We were sent by Grand Master Yoda to -"

"Lies," Rastin said quietly, just as the droid lit up and beeped again. Jyn's eyes welled as she watched Rastin put the lie detecting droid back up on its retractable arm. She thought about fighting back, about punching him in the face, as he made a move to bring shackles around the arms of the chair. But she knew it was useless; there were four battle droids with blasters just outside the room. Once her arms were shackled to the chair, Rastin brought another droid down from its elevated storage position.

"This one isn't nearly as interested in conversation, I'm afraid," he told Jyn. This droid was a black disk with a single line of red light across its center. Krybus Rastin aimed the disk at Jyn's face and chest, and he pulled a small clicker from a holster behind the droid. He positioned his thumb atop the red button on the clicker, and he asked smoothly, "How did you and your friends get to Scarif?"

Jyn said nothing at all. She stared to her side, to the mirrored wall that reflected her own frightened face back at her. She watched the reflection of Krybus Rastin as he clicked the button beneath his thumb. Suddenly there was a burning jolt of pain, and Jyn's body convulsed a little. She cried out, unable to stay silent, and Rastin immediately said,

"Tell me who you really are and how you wound up on Scarif with Republican supplies."

Jyn shook her head and mumbled, "It was a secret mission to -"

The pain returned as Rastin clicked his button again. Jyn could barely hear him over her own shriek as he said calmly,

"The sooner you stop lying, Jyn Erso, the sooner we can be done with this. Tell the truth."

"You wouldn't believe the truth even if I told you!" Jyn shouted. The next time that Rastin triggered the droid, he held his thumb down, and the pain seemed to go on forever. Jyn felt like her veins were filled with boiling liquid, like her skin was being torn off one layer at a time, like her brain was going to explode inside her skull. She screamed and wriggled in the chair. It lasted so long that Jyn thought perhaps she had died after all and this was the punishment for whatever bad things she'd done in life.

Then, suddenly, the pain stopped and it was Krybus Rastin who was yelling.

"What the blazes is going on here?" he shouted, dropping the clicker in his hand and making a move for the blaster at his hip. Before he could even pull the weapon from its holster, a bolt of red light struck him directly in his chest and he crumpled to the ground. Jyn tried to shriek at the sight of that. She tried to turn and look over her shoulder. But the torture had stripped all power from her muscles, and all she could do was sit and stare straight ahead as footsteps came running into the room.

"Jyn!" said Cassian's voice, and then he was in front of her with a large blaster rifle in his hands. Jyn wanted to ask how exactly it was that Cassian had obtained the same type of blaster rifle used by the battle droids, but she couldn't speak.

"Baze, help me!" Cassian cried. His hands were shaking as they pressed buttons on the arms of the chair to unshackle Jyn. Baze Malbus was there then, lifting Jyn from the chair. She suddenly found herself being propped up between Cassian and Baze, held up and dragged as Cassian shouted,

"Bodhi, hurry up with K and get a ship ready to go. We need to move. Now!"

Everything was a blur then. Jyn faded in and out of consciousness as little jolts and shocks of pain came over her. She was being moved through a corridor, she knew. There were Klaxons blaring. There were blasters going off and the sounds of battle droids yelling at one another. Then everything went black.

* * *

When Jyn woke up, she was lying on a very narrow bunk. She was acutely aware of being on a ship in hyperspace, because there was a distinctive sort of shudder that ships had when they were moving through hyperspace. She blinked a few times, and then she heard Chirrut's voice say,

"She's awake."

"Well, look who decided to join us," said K-2SO. Jyn tried to sit up, but she was still far too weak. Suddenly Cassian and Bodhi were dashing over to her bedside, and Jyn tried to turn to look at them. Everything hurt and she shrieked against her will. Cassian murmured to Bodhi,

"Go ahead and get another Health stim, will you, please?"

Bodhi dashed off, leaving Cassian alone with Jyn. She swallowed, her throat feeling very dry, and she demanded in a whisper,

"What happened? Where are we?"

"Well, as it turns out, battle droids are not very smart," Cassian said, "and it was easy to lure them close to the cells. Baze Malbus is a crack shot, you know. And then there was the fact that Kay-Tu was being held somewhere else and… well, he's strong."

"He broke down the cell doors?" Jyn asked in disbelief, and Cassian amended,

"He ripped them off."

"Good work by him, then," Jyn murmured, feeling very weak. She shut her eyes and asked, "How did you all find me?"

"Chirrut seemed to know," Cassian said. "And when we got rid of the battle droids outside the room and came inside, you were being tortured. I have to say, taking out that bald guy was the easiest shot I've ever taken."

"I have to… I have to tell you something," Jyn whispered, but then the pain got so bad that she reached for Cassian's hand and squeezed hard. She shut her eyes and felt embarrassing tears leaking out. Bodhi's voice said,

"Here's the Health stim."

There was a little poke in Jyn's thigh, and she knew Cassian had injected her with the serum that combined pain relief, a sedative, and chemicals to trigger the body's healing process. She was drowsy after just a moment, but the pain was mostly gone.

"I have to tell you something," she whispered again. She cracked open her eyes to see Cassian kneeling beside the bunk, his eyes concerned. Jyn swallowed again, with some effort, and said, "The man who was interrogating me was called Krybus Rastin. He said he had been with the Confederation for twenty years."

"The Confederation… the Separatists… did not exist for twenty years," Baze protested from a bench across the shuttle. "Five years as the actual Confederation. Then the Empire was founded."

"No," Jyn said, finally able to shake her head. "His uniform had the Separatist symbol. Oh, and he said nobody had used that term for fifteen years. He asked if I worked for Grand Master Yoda."

"Yoda?" Chirrut said in awe. He rose from where he sat, his milky eyes flashing at the name. "You mean to say Yoda is still in charge of some kind of armed resistance to the Separatists?"

"I don't really know," Jyn admitted. "All I know is that the past we know to be true isn't true here. And we all think that the Clone Wars ended twenty years ago. But wherever we are, none of those rules, those truths exist anymore."

"Jyn," Bodhi said carefully, "Did you tell that man the truth about us?"

"Not that it would matter, seeing as how he is dead," Cassian said, but Jyn said rather sharply,

"They have surveillance everywhere on that Dreadnought. He heard us making up the pirate story. I'm very certain there were cameras all over that interrogation room. No, I didn't tell him the truth, but there's no doubt we're fugitives now. Cassian killed one of their captains; we're probably the most wanted people in the galaxy now."

"Lucky I know how to root out and disable a ship's tracking devices," Bodhi said rather proudly. "And lucky I know of some pretty obscure planets."

"Where are we going?" Jyn asked, and Cassian answered,

"You and I are going to Cloud City on Bespin. Posing as tourists, gathering information. The others are going to the swamp planet Dagobah. Splitting up will make it less likely that we get caught. We'll keep comlinks and stay in contact. We need to figure out exactly what reality we are living in, so that we can figure out where to go and what to do."

"I must tell you how very jealous I am," said K-2SO. "I've always wanted a vacation in Cloud City."

"You're a little conspicuous," Cassian said over his shoulder to the droid. He turned back to Jyn and dragged his thumb over the inside of her wrist, which made Jyn shiver a little. He gave her a tiny smile and said, "We're sixteen hours from Cloud City. We've got to get you healed up before then if you're going to make a convincing tourist."

* * *

"Welcome to Jubilance Bespin - the gem of Cloud City! Do you have an advance reservation?"

"Erm… no." Jyn avoided the direct gaze of the smooth silver droid operating the front desk of the resort.

"Not a problem. We have more than enough availability. May I have your name, please?"

"Mitka Hai," said Jyn confidently. She spelled the pseudonym for the droid, who keyed the letters into a computer system and asked,

"Would you care for our standard room or a more luxurious suite?"

"Standard accommodations," Jyn said quickly. "For… for five nights."

She flicked her eyes to Cassian, wondering if she ought to ask for separate beds. But she didn't want to drag this interaction out any longer than necessary. She and Cassian had come here after the others had unloaded them quickly on a dock. First, though, they had gone shopping. The security footage from the Dreadnought would have captured their outfits. They had hurriedly purchased - with credit chips that had been stolen from the shuttle and recoded by K-2SO - new clothes for themselves.

Jyn had opted to go all-in on the disguise front, and she had purchased a dark turquoise outfit consisting of leggings and a flowing, long-sleeved overdress. She had also bought a dark orange headscarf, flowing and loose like the clothes, so that she would be less identifiable. Cassian wore a bright white pair of trousers with a matching tunic that reached his knees and was embroidered with a rich, colorful design. Jyn thought they both looked rather ridiculous, but at least they barely resembled the people on the Dreadnought security footage.

"Your room will be on the eighty-ninth floor of our resort," the check-in droid was saying. "The turbolift behind me will take you there. You will be in room 8902. Please do not hesitate to use the various call buttons in your room to summon concierge assistance, food delivery, or any other services you may require. You may pay for your room upon check-out."

The droid handed Jyn the room key, and Jyn muttered a half-hearted thanks as she and Cassian hurried to the turbolift. Once they were inside and it began hurtling upward, Jyn stared out the glass at the misty, pinkish clouds below them.

"I saw a news broadcast on a holoscreen in the corridor outside the resort," Cassian said softly, and Jyn snapped her face to him. Cassian furrowed his dark brows and noted, "The broadcaster mentioned something about a Confederation President. Anakin Skywalker."

Jyn's mouth fell open. She'd heard that name before. "My mother… when she used to tell me stories of the Jedi, she talked about the heroes of the Clone Wars. Yoda. Mace Windu. Obi-Wan Kenobi. Anakin Skywalker."

"You think he is a Jedi?" Cassian asked incredulously. "Why would he be running the Confederation if he is a Jedi?"

Jyn shook her head and said honestly, "I don't know. I suppose it just goes to show that many things are different here."

"Did you notice the room rate posted at the front desk?" asked Cassian. "Three hundred credits per night."

"Well, how much did it cost in… in our world?" Jyn asked, not having a better way to phrase the question. Cassian shrugged and guessed,

"A thousand a night, at least. The most luxurious resorts here were five thousand. So… my guess is that the Trade Federation, once it was in power for long enough, suppressed inflation? Currency control. More profits."

"Hm." Jyn frowned and swallowed hard. "Something stopped the Empire from happening. They talk about the Clone Wars, but not the Empire. They talk about Yoda, but not the Emperor."

"There was no Jyn Erso in this world," Cassian pointed out. "Perhaps there was never an Emperor."

Jyn nodded. She sighed as the turbolift door slid open on the eighty-ninth floor, and she stepped out with Cassian.

"You know they're already searching for us," she said as they walked down the rounded corridor, and Cassian whispered,

"That's why the others have to go hide in a swamp on Dagobah. It's why you and I have to keep a low profile here. Why we came armed."

He touched his hip, the place where he had a blaster concealed beneath his new tunic. Jyn had one, too, a small blaster pistol in the waistband of the leggings beneath her dress. How the blazes she was meant to actually pull it out in battle was something of a mystery.

"Here it is," she said, using her card to open the door marked 8902. She pushed the door open and gasped a little. The room was clean and slick, with a white floor made of some kind of glittering stone. The walls were curved where the ceiling ended, and there were a few abstract works art scattered through the space on little pedestals and in frames. One wall was entirely made of transparisteel that appeared to dim automatically when the bright sunlight shone through it. Beyond the window was a vast void of clouds. The bed was so low that it seemed it was sitting directly on the ground, though it was very wide and looked awfully comfortable with its sleek blue and gold blankets. There was a desk with a chair, a comm device on the wall with a panel of call buttons beside it, and a door that very evidently led to a fresher.

"Well," Cassian mused, "If we have to keep a low profile while we gather information, there are worse places."

He'd closed the door behind him, and as Jyn stepped into the room, she asked over her shoulder, "Should I have requested a room with two beds?"

Cassian scoffed a little and shook his head. "I slept next to you on the sands of Scarif. You think I mind sharing a bed with you here?"

Jyn smiled a bit and felt her cheeks go hot as she noted, "Kay's not here. None of them are. It's a bit more…"

"Private," Cassian finished, nodding. He approached Jyn and pulled the fine headscarf from her hair as he asked, "Was that the only thing stopping you? The fact that we weren't alone?"

"Cassian." Jyn lowered her eyes and sighed. "I was so confused. Still am. But I wasn't certain if we were alive or dead. Sleeping next to you on that sand brought me more comfort than I can say. And when I danced… when you danced with me, I realized something."

"What did you realize?" Cassian asked quietly. It had only been a few days ago, that dance, though it felt like an eternity in many ways. Jyn tried not to laugh as she informed him,

"I realized you're the closest thing I've ever had to a boyfriend. Sad, isn't it?"

Cassian shook his head. "Sad that you've never been attached. Not sad that you might look at me in that way, even a little bit. That's an honor for me, Jyn."

He kissed her then, slowly and gently in a way that made Jyn's knees buckle a little. She resisted the urge to deepen the kiss, letting Cassian pull away as he set down the duffel bag with pajamas and spare outfits they'd bought. He sniffed a bit and stared at the bag as he said,

"When I heard you scream in that interrogation room? When I saw what that man was doing to you? My only concern was that maybe I would be shaking too much from my anger, and that my shot might not be accurate. Because I was so angry, Jyn, when I heard that scream. And I have never, ever felt relief like I did when you woke up on the stolen shuttle. While you were sleeping, Chirrut prayed for you. He kept saying, ' She is one with the Force and the Force is with her .' He said it over and over and over again. And eventually, I started saying it with him."

Jyn had no answer for any of that. All she could do was stare at Cassian, at his sleek black hair and his scruff and his dark eyes, and feel a surge of affection for him. She blinked a few times and finally managed to say,

"Whether we're dead, alive, in another permutation, or forever on that beach, I can honestly say, Cassian Andor, that you are my favorite person."

He smiled then, raising his eyes to her, and he nodded. "You are my favorite person, too, Jyn Erso."

"Perhaps we ought to turn on the news up here," she suggested, "to get a better sense of current events."

"Good idea," Cassian said, seeming to snap back to rights. He walked to the desk and picked up the circular holoprojector. He pressed a few buttons to calibrate the channel, and then a three-dimensional blue alien, a pretty female Twi'lek, appeared. She was in the middle of a story, obviously, but Jyn started listening attentively as she stood beside Cassian and watched the broadcast.

" ... the last time that Lothal launched an insurrection movement. Confederation President Skywalker indicated that strikes against the Lothal rebels would be swift and thorough, and residents of other planets can rest assured that the feeble insurgency will be suppressed very quickly. And now to something a bit more light-hearted. A young human on the planet of Bellassa was honored by Confederation President Skywalker himself for making a remarkable scientific discovery. The girl was offered a place at the Confederation Academy of Sciences despite her young age. We expect that she will be making great strides soon on behalf of us all. "

"It's propaganda," Cassian said derisively, but Jyn reminded him,

"The Empire broadcast hardly anything except propaganda. You know that."

"This… this Skywalker. This Anakin Skywalker. He sounds like a dictator, not a president," Cassian said, switching off the holoprojector. Jyn shrugged and sighed.

"Titles mean nothing. Deeds mean everything. We'll have to learn more about him, I suppose."

Cassian looked at the chronometer on the wall and noted, "Despite the sun outside, it's actually very late. Everything will be closing for the night soon. We should call for some food. I don't know about you, but I'm very hungry."

An hour later, they were finishing up their buckwheat noodles and smoked nerf, and Jyn swigged down the last of her Corellian spiced ale. Once he'd done the same, Cassian took the tray into the corridor, inserted it into a disposal slot, and came back to the room. The sun was finally making its way down now, and the angle made for blinding light through the enormous window. Cassian pushed a button on the wall that blacked the entire window out, and then the space was bathed in a cool, dim light. Jyn sighed as she realized that soon enough she'd be sleeping beside Cassian. She mumbled something about getting herself cleaned up, and she made her way into the fresher.

Mercifully, there was a toothbrush and tooth powder in one of the drawers, and Jyn cleaned the taste of her meal from her mouth. She stripped off her odd teal dress and leggings and hung them on the pegs behind the door. She peeled off her undergarments and stepped into the narrow, cylindrical shower. This was an automatic one, Jyn knew, though she'd never used one. She held her breath as she pushed the activation button but was pleasantly surprised by the way the jets of water and mechanical arms washed her hair and skin. By the time the four-minute cycle was done, Jyn felt clean and refreshed. She toweled off her hair and put it into two braids like she'd always done as a child, and she pulled on the plain white pajamas she'd purchased. The trousers were loose and came to her knees, and the shirt was sleeveless and shapeless. Jyn didn't mind. Fashion had never been of much concern to her.

"Your turn," she smirked at Cassian when she came out of the fresher. He looked shy when he smiled, which was not an expression Jyn was accustomed to seeing from him. She made her way to the low bed, settling onto the right side so that she and Cassian would be oriented the same way they'd been in their sleeping sacks on Scarif.

The blue and gold blankets were warm and plush, and as Jyn settled her head on the pillow, she realized she'd never been in quite so comfortable a bed. She shut her eyes and tried to calibrate everything. They were in a parallel permutation. This was real. She was alive. The shockwave, somehow, had not actually killed them. This was not a dream. It was not the afterlife. They had moved.

The Separatists - the Confederation - was not only still in existence, but was the leading power. There was no Empire. There was no Rebel Alliance. And Jyn, along with the only people she'd ever been able to really call 'friends,' were all probably wanted with a bounty.

Jyn opened her eyes and huffed out a breath. This was a mess, she thought. Perhaps it would have been better if the shockwave had killed her. She had been very prepared, in those final half-seconds before the blinding light had come, to die. Instead, she was a fugitive. But she was with him . With Cassian. And maybe, Jyn thought, there just might be some small reason why that was so.

Cassian's pajamas, as it happened, were remarkably similar to Jyn's, only with longer trousers and sleeves on the shirt. She snorted a little laugh as he walked out of the fresher, and she teased,

"We match."

"It's a uniform," Cassian said playfully, "for the new Rebellion."

"And against what are we rebelling, exactly?" Jyn asked as Cassian slipped into the bed beside her. He lay sideways facing Jyn and said,

"Against Confederation President Skywalker, whoever he is. Against… against whatever powers led to you screaming the way you did in that interrogation room."

Jyn smiled weakly, trying not to remember the pain. She reached to drag her thumb over Cassian's scruff, and she assured him,

"I'm all right now. That Health stim really did the trick."

Cassian just stared at her for a long moment, until Jyn wondered if she'd sprouted a new, more interesting nose. Finally Cassian murmured,

"When I fell asleep on the shuttle, on the way here, I dreamed about dancing with you. About… doing more than that." Suddenly his cheeks went very red, and he shut his eyes and rolled onto his back. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't… I'm sorry."

"Cassian." Jyn rolled her eyes and moved toward him. She put her hands on either side of him and hovered above him, and when he opened his eyes, he reached up to stroke at one of Jyn's braids. She smiled, more confidently this time, and she told him, "If Kay hadn't been inside the shelter that night, I was fully prepared to do all manner of… things … with you."

"You were?" Cassian blinked slowly, and his breath audibly quickened through his nostrils. Jyn nodded and summoned all the courage she possessed as she said,

"Whether I'm alive or dead or somewhere in between, I do not want my conscious existence to end without doing things with you, Cassian."

"Oh. All right, then." He seemed almost breathless when Jyn lowered her face to his and kissed him. She started off gently, but when his hands settled on her cheeks, all hint of gentleness dissolved. Moment by moment the kiss grew stronger and more frantic - teeth nibbling, lips being suckled, tongues searching - until Jyn could hardly breathe.

On instinct, she threw her right leg over Cassian's hips so that she didn't have to balance as much on her arms. Then she had to yank her mouth away and gasp, for there was an insistent firmness beneath her when her hips brushed his.

"Mmph… Jyn." Cassian's back arched a little when she gamely rolled her hips against his erection. His hands balled into fists and then began frantically wrenching Jyn's pajama top upward. She helped him, peeling it off and tossing it away in one fluid motion. Then Cassian's hands were on her breasts, which were small enough that she was self-conscious of them. If he minded them at all, he certainly didn't show it. His cheeks flushed more than ever, and he breathed through clenched teeth as he caressed her chest. It felt good, Jyn thought. Better than almost anything had ever felt. When his thumbs danced over her firm nipples, she failed to suppress a little squeal.

She needed more than this, she decided, and that would require an abject lack of pajama trousers on both their parts. She climbed ungracefully from Cassian's body, flopping down a bit on the mattress and not much caring. She wasn't dancing; she was trying to be naked. She yanked at her pajama trousers, shimmying out of them and seeing that Cassian was doing the same. When he threw his pajamas over the side of the bed, Jyn's eyes went wide.

There it was - his actual cock, sticking proudly out from his body like a weapon. Jyn's body suddenly went very warm, and she was so wet between her legs that she worried she was sullying the sheets. Her hand reached toward Cassian, entirely of its own accord, and her fingers shook as she asked,

"Can I touch it?"

Cassian laughed a little and nodded. "Uh… yes. Please do."

He lay on his back so that her angle was a bit better. Jyn's hand still trembled when she closed her fingers around him. Soft on hard, with palpable veins and silky skin. It was like nothing she'd ever touched before, and Jyn quite liked the feel of it. She danced her fingers up and down his shaft, around the dewy tip and all the way down into the thatch of dark hair at the base. She was staring, which she thought was probably rude, but Cassian was groaning and gripping the sheets, so he didn't seem to mind.

"Jyn," he said after a while, sounding tormented, "if you want… mmph! Jyn, if you want to do anything other than touch me, you'd better stop right now."

He said those last words in a rush, and Jyn nearly tore her hand away from him. She realized what he meant; she knew intellectually how all of this worked. She tried to speak, but when the words didn't come, she met Cassian's eyes and fought through the surging, pulsing want in her own body to say,

"I have an implant. So… I'm safe, you know?"

"That's good." Cassian nodded and shut his eyes for a moment. "Have you ever…?"

"No," Jyn admitted at once. Then, laughing a bit nervously, she proclaimed, "but I am a quick learner."

Cassian's eyes were still shut as he frowned and told her, "It might hurt a little. The first time sometimes hurts. Not always. If you let me… uh… get you really ready, you know…"

"All right." Jyn bravely lay on her own back and said, "Go ahead."

"Try and relax, Jyn," Cassian murmured as he traded positions with Jyn. Now he was the one hovering beside her, and he softly rubbed her thigh as he whispered again, "Relax. It's just me, and I like you very much. You're my favorite person, remember?"

Jyn felt all her muscles go a bit more slack then. Her shoulders, her legs, the muscles in her most intimate place… everything did relax a bit as she gazed up at Cassian. His hand pulled around her thigh some more, gradually moving to the inside and working his way up. Jyn started to tense again as he neared the place where no one else had touched her, but she remembered that he'd told her to relax, and she forced her body to do so.

She was glad she did, because the feel of his hand stroking her there was beyond anything she'd ever imagined. His fingers started drawing small circles over her most sensitive spot, and a helpless moan was ripped from Jyn's throat.

"Cassian," she whispered, feeling suddenly out of breath as her heart began to gallop, "I want… I want you."

"Patience," he scolded her, and Jyn scowled at him. She reached up and clutched at his shoulders as he dipped one finger, and then another, inside of her. He began twisting very slowly, pushing and pulling and stretching as if he were preparing her for his actual cock. That probably was what he was doing, Jyn realized, and she probably ought to thank him for it. Instead she squeezed his shoulders and wrenched her eyes shut and arched her back.

"Tell me to stop and I will," came a sudden whisper from beside her ear, and then Cassian's fingers pulled out of Jyn's body. They were replaced by something larger, firmer, and more invasive. Jyn cried out as Cassian rocked into her. There was pain, brief and very slight, but it almost immediately gave way to a deep, warm sense of satisfaction.

"Don't stop," she pleaded, her hands planting themselves on his back. She still couldn't open her eyes; she was entirely too dizzy for that. "Don't stop, Cassian."

He didn't stop. He pulled back just a little and pushed himself in farther, repeating the process until he was completely sheathed inside Jyn's body. Then he finally paused, kissing her forehead in between his panting breaths. Jyn finally opened her eyes, amazed by the sight of their bodies joined together like this.

"I'm not dead," she mumbled as Cassian started to move again. She shook her head and said firmly, "This doesn't happen to dead people."

"Well, you'd hope not," Cassian replied with a low chuckle. Jyn grinned up at him and joked,

"You don't know. Maybe dead people have the best sex of anybody."

"Stars, Jyn!" Cassian laughed, jerking his hips hard against her as though to punish her for being so crude. She half-laughed and half-gasped at the feel of that, and then she felt her resolve turn to iron as she said,

"Do it again. Hard like that."

Cassian's black eyes flashed and his mouth fell open, but he nodded. He thrust hard again, lowering himself to his elbows and crashing his mouth against Jyn's. It was too much then. His hips ground against hers just so, and his member was filling her in almost violent thrashes, and he tasted good, and he smelled nice, and -

Everything went white hot, just like on the beach when the shockwave hit. Warm and bright and very, very pleasant. Only this time, there was no change when Jyn opened her eyes. There was just Cassian, bucking a bit wildly and letting out a feral growl. His chest was sheened with sweat, and Jyn had a strange desire to run her fingertips over that skin. When she did, she could feel the way he was gasping for air, the way his heart was almost pounding straight out of his chest.

"Jyn. Jyn, Jyn… oh. Jyn." He was saying her name like a chant, like a prayer, like the way Chirrut rambled over and over about the Force. Cassian's black eyes met Jyn's for a half second before they fluttered shut, and then his hips went still. He was pulsing inside of her, his manhood throbbing and surging within her. Jyn's hands quivered on his chest, and when he collapsed beside her, she instinctively curled up against him.

She was very tired all of a sudden, like she hadn't slept in days. She said nothing; she just listened to Cassian's heartbeat like she'd done on the beach where they'd died together. But he did speak, after what felt like a great long while.

"Jyn Erso," he whispered, "you really are my favorite person. Tell me, because it matters now more than ever… do you feel safe? Do you feel comfortable?"

"I am safe. I am comfortable," Jyn insisted, planting a simple kiss on his chest and surrendering herself entirely to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

"Oh, Miss! You're so very pretty all on your own, but our ST cosmetic droids can give you the makeover of your dreams!" A teenaged human with an elaborate hairstyle caught Jyn's attention as she and Cassian strolled through the shopping gallery in another part of Cloud City from their hotel. Jyn snorted a little laugh at the girl's suggestion and shook her head.

"Thanks, anyway," she said, but Cassian put his hand on her elbow to make her stop walking. Jyn frowned up at him, and he lowered his lips to his ear and murmured,

"People talk a lot in a beauty salon. Why don't you go see what you hear?"

He passed her a credit chip, and Jyn scowled as she hissed, "Why should I have to be fussed over to get information?"

Cassian shrugged. "We should try whatever we can. There's a barber a few shops down. I'm going to go have them shave off my moustache and beard so I'm less recognizable. We all have to make sacrifices, Jyn. Be back soon."

Before she could protest, he'd walked off, leaving her standing alone in the hallway with a credit chip in her hand. She huffed out an angry breath and managed to plaster a very fake smile on her face as she turned back to the girl outside the salon.

"One makeover, please," Jyn chirped. She was guided inside, to a comfortable, low-backed chair in front of a mirror. She glanced around to see two middle-aged human women to her left, chatting away about their children.

"An ST unit will be right with you," the girl from outside said, and Jyn nodded absently. She stared into the mirror and listened to the women speak.

"Lemaka likes to do her hair in these tight, neat styles these days. She's more stylish than I ever was! She uses photos of the President's late wife for inspiration, you know."

"Oh…" the other woman breathed. "She was so very fashionable, wasn't she? Always in those gorgeous gowns, those beautiful headpieces. Such a shame she passed when the twins were so young."

"They say the stress and fatigue was too much for her when President Skywalker first took office," the first woman said. "Can't say I blame her. If my husband was in charge of an entire galaxy, I think I'd keel over, too. Poor dear."

"Good afternoon!"

Jyn startled at the sound of a cheerful mechanical voice. She looked in the mirror to see a droid with a slim, feminine humanoid build. The droid gestured to herself and said, "I'm Estee Sixtoo. I'm programmed to make you look your best! Is there a specific look you had in mind today?"

Jyn blinked quickly and shook her head. "Erm… no. I'm not picky, necessarily. Why don't you surprise me?"

"Delightful!" said the ST unit. "I adore getting artistic. Especially with a great beauty like you."

She began using the myriad tools from her workstation then. She sprayed Jyn's hair with water and combed it out before trimming the rough ends. Jyn knew she was meant to be listening to gossip, but the women were discussing recipes now, and there was nothing to hear. Instead she watched in the mirror as Estee Sixtoo meticulously trimmed and shaped her hair. Jyn had never had a real haircut; she'd occasionally had somebody hack at her hair to the best of their ability. This was interesting, she thought, and not altogether unpleasant.

"You have such wonderful green eyes! How about I add a bit of red to your hair, make it nice and auburn to set off that green?" Estee Sixtoo asked. Jyn swallowed hard and nodded.

"All right."

For the next twenty minutes or so, the droid smeared a reddish-brown goop onto her hair and then covered it with a cap that felt very warm.

"I'll be back to get that off in fifteen minutes," the ST unit said. "Would you care for anything to read in the meantime? We have holozines… entertainment industry ones, news…"

"News, please," Jyn said quickly. Estee Sixtoo seemed unfazed by Jyn's sense of urgency. She wheeled away and came back with a rectangular frame. Jyn pushed the button on the bottom of one and saw the title of the holozine.

The Confederation Today - News and Events from Around the Galaxy .

Jyn read as quickly as she could, flicking through product advertisements and casting her eyes briskly over articles. She tried to soak it all in.

Spice smuggling off of Kessel had nearly stopped, owing to the fact that a Confederation blockade was keeping inbound and outbound ships in check. Confederation President Anakin Skywalker was elated to announce that slavery on Kessel had been almost entirely eradicated.

Currency intervention to avoid inflation was having an overall positive effect on the citizens of the Galactic Confederation. Though there were sporadic reports that several items' prices felt more weighty with intervention, most citizens were finding it easier to purchase residential property, personal speeders, and other expensive items.

The tenth anniversary of Confederation President Anakin Skywalker's service was fast approaching. To celebrate, the Confederation Council had recently passed a law confirming that he was President for Life. For the anniversary celebrations, there would be parades, fireworks displays, street parties, and feasts throughout the galaxy sponsored by the government itself. Naboo, the home planet of the President's late wife, would be hosting a massive screening of a documentary about President Skywalker's achievements.

Jedi Grand Master Yoda was still missing, though it was known he was still in command of the rebellious scraps of what had once been the Grand Army of the Republic. It was believed that Grand Master Obi-Wan Kenobi was with Yoda. The reward for their capture had been increased to one million credits apiece. There was a list of wanted criminals and traitors, which was so long it took up four pages of the holozine. The bounty for each person was one thousand credits. Jyn's stomach turned as she read through the alphabetical list. Then she froze, her eyes locking on a listing.

Jyn Erso, age 22, human female. Also, her unnamed four male companions and a large droid of unknown type. All are wanted for conspiracy with the Republican Rebels, assault, murder, and escaping legal detention.

Jyn shut her eyes for a moment and felt sick. The only good thing was that there were no pictures and that the men's names were not listed. She didn't care much for stealing, though she had done it more than once in her difficult life. She reached for the over-the-shoulder tote she'd brought into the salon, and once she knew nobody was watching her, she shut the holomag off and shoved it inside.

"Ready to rinse this color off?" said Estee Sixtoo, jolting Jyn again. When Jyn nodded, the droid said politely, "Come with me, please."

Once Jyn's hair was dried and styled, it was a sleek, straight shoulder-length look with blunt bangs that grazed her eyebrows. The ST unit had been right; the rusty color did set off Jyn's eyes. All she could hope was that she barely resembled any footage of her from that Dreadnought.

"Do you have a preference for your makeup?" Estee Sixtoo asked, and Jyn shook her head as she tried to smile.

"Get artistic," she said. The droid let out a happy little series of beeps before her mechanical voice said,

"Something dramatic, then."

Jyn had never really worn makeup, so it felt odd when the ST unit began smearing creams and gels all over her skin. She almost sneezed when an enormous puff was used to put powder on her face. Her eyes watered from the strange sensation when she was told to look up and a thick black pencil was dragged all around her eyes. It took everything Jyn had not to flinch when an odd-looking rod and brush was shoved against her eyelashes. Then the droid insulted Jyn a bit when she tutted,

"Your lips need exfoliation. Are you very rough on them, dear?"

Jyn waited until a grainy substance was smeared onto her lips and off again, and she said, "I think I treat my lips rather normally."

"Well, now that they're perfectly smooth, the metallic lip stain will go on better and last much longer," said Estee Sixtoo merrily. She seemed to be painting something liquid onto Jyn's lips, so Jyn held as still as she possibly could. The ST unit said firmly, "Let that dry for just a moment. I'll go ring you up. Do you have a credit chip? Great! Hope you like your look!"

All of that last bit happened so fast that by the time Jyn looked into the mirror, she was shocked. Her hair was glossy and chic. Her pale skin looked flawless. The skin around her eyes was dark and smoky, which only made her green eyes stand out all the more. Her lips looked like they were made of molten copper, though when Jyn gently touched them, she could tell they were dry.

She certainly didn't look much like herself. Coupled with the pale green tunic and leggings and brown boots she wore today, Jyn thought someone would have to be looking awfully hard to recognize the screaming girl from the Dreadnought security footage. Estee Sixtoo came back and handed Jyn her credit chip back, explaining that there was a remaining balance on it. Jyn barely spoke as she mumbled her thanks and left the salon, keeping one hand tight against the bag into which she'd shoved the holozine.

The corridor of the shopping gallery was bustling, and so it took a moment for Jyn to find Cassian. Part of the difficulty came from the fact that he looked almost nothing like himself.

He stood in the hallway with a neat hairstyle parted on the side, his moustache and beard entirely gone. He looked very, very young, Jyn thought with a bit of a smirk. She walked toward him, and when she reached him, she pulled her fingers over his cheek.

"Have to admit that I'll miss that scruff," she told him, and he shrugged.

"It tends to grow back. Do I look different?"

Jyn nodded and laughed a little. "Very different. About fifteen years different. And me? Do you like my metal lips?"

Cassian's face was a little strange then, and he finally said, "Doesn't seem like it would be very easy to kiss you with that stuff on."

"It tends to wash off," Jyn informed him. Then, remembering why they were really here, she lowered her voice and murmured, "I have a holozine in my bag. We're listed as wanted. Well, I'm listed. The rest of you are apparently my 'unnamed male companions.' In any case, they've got the word out. I think… I think we should contact the others and have them come fetch us. Or at least Kay. Just have them send K-2SO; they didn't list any real information about him. We need to get away from these crowds. We have loads of information now."

"So you want to go from this elegant glamor to a swamp?" Cassian teased, but when Jyn gave him a serious look, he nodded. "Let's go back to the hotel room and make a call, then."

* * *

The comlink that Cassian had brought was secure and able to make calls over long distances, but that also meant it was large and heavy. Jyn sat on the bed with her legs crossed as Cassian set the brick-like device down and turned the dials carefully. He pressed the call button, and there was a long moment of static. Finally, she heard Bodhi's voice say,

"Confirm identity. Repeat. Confirm identity."

"This is Rogue One Cloud City," Cassian said, leaning down so that the microphone would pick up his words clearly. "Repeat. Rogue One Cloud City."

"Well, hello there, Cloud City," Bodhi's voice said. There was a little pause, and then Bodhi said, "K-2SO would like to know how the gambling is."

Jyn chuckled and pressed the talk button. "Tell him to come here himself and he can spend twenty minutes playing dejarik before he picks us up."

Cassian smirked as he waited. Jyn noticed that his facial expressions looked so very different when he was clean-shaven. She wondered if she looked that radically different with her metallic copper lips, her black-rimmed eyes, and her sleek hair.

"Please confirm that you would like K-2SO and Bodhi to come get you from Bespin," said a voice, which Jyn recognized at once as Baze's. She looked at Cassian, and he said,

"That shuttle probably does need a pilot and a co-pilot."

Jyn nodded and pressed the talk button. "Confirming. Please keep Baze and Chirrut on Dagobah with a portable comlink. Send shuttle to Cloud City and contact us just before leaving hyperspace. We have quite a lot of information to share."

There was more silence then, and finally Bodhi's voice came back through the static. "K-2SO and Bodhi will be arriving in Cloud City in approximately twenty-two hours. Repeat - K-2SO and Bodhi will be in Cloud City in approximately twenty-two hours."

Cassian pressed the talk button. "Copy that. See you then. Don't let Kay bring any credits; he's going to be in and out."

He shut the hefty comlink off and stared at Jyn for a long time. She felt very self-conscious all of a sudden, and she shrugged.

"What is it?"

Cassian dug his teeth into his bottom lip and said, "There's a restaurant on the twenty-second floor of this hotel. It's for hotel guests only. I think you and I are pretty well disguised. Would you like some dinner?"

"We could just order food in again," Jyn said, gesturing to the panel on the wall with all the buttons. "Probably better to -"

"Jyn."

She snapped her face back to him, and Cassian blinked a few times and shook his head. "I'm probably not ever going to get another chance to take a beautiful woman to a restaurant. And seeing as it's you , I'll beg if I have to."

Jyn swallowed hard and lowered her eyes. "All right, then," she said quietly, "but we can't talk politics or parallel permutations while we're there. Blending in, right?"

"You couldn't blend in no matter what," Cassian said, and when Jyn frowned up at him, he clarified, "Everyone will notice the stunning woman at the table with me. Which is fine. I don't mind if they're jealous."

Jyn tossed one of the small pillows from the bed at him playfully, but her heart picked up a little at the way he was talking to her. She wanted to kiss him, but she knew it would muck up her expensive makeup. So she crawled off the bed and put her hands on his newly-bare cheeks, and she whispered,

"We won't talk about dying together. We'll talk about our favorite planets, and things we find funny, and what a perfect day would be for each of us."

Cassian grinned and dragged his fingers through Jyn's perfectly smoothed hair. "We won't talk about this strange new reality. We'll talk about the fears we have but know to be silly. We'll talk about the best and worst people we've ever met. We'll talk about… about dancing. Maybe we'll even dance."

Jyn shook her head at him rather defiantly, but her lips did turn up a bit. "If there is dancing happening down there, and you want me to dance, you owe me something first."

Cassian's dark eyebrows went up, and he asked softly, "What's that?"

Jyn leaned up and put her lips beside Cassian's ear. She pulled one hand down the front of his tunic, and she murmured, "Tomorrow Bodhi and Kay will be here to take us away to swamp planet. But tonight, you and I have this room all to ourselves. I will dance with you if you promise me to make the best of tonight."

"Oh." Cassian's breath quickened a little, and he nodded. "Mm-hmm. Yes. I can promise you that."

* * *

Central Confederation Headquarters

Coruscant

Anakin Skywalker stared out the transparisteel window of his elegant office at the Jedi Temple. He blinked a few times as he wondered exactly where Obi-Wan Kenobi was. He had reached out in the Force again today, trying his best to sense the presence of his old master, but whatever ties had once existed had been severed. Obi-Wan was alive, Anakin knew, but he certainly wasn't palpable in the Force as he once had been.

Now Anakin looked at the Jedi Temple and contemplated, not for the first time, blowing it up or burning it down. It would send a powerful message, he knew. After all, the Jedi were forbidden from training Younglings, and most of them had been killed off during the Clone Wars. Anakin narrowed his eyes and decided that if he still felt like destroying the Temple in five days' time, he would order it done. Or he would do it himself. There was no rule saying the President for Life couldn't strafe the Jedi Temple himself. Anakin was still an ace pilot.

"President Skywalker, Count Dooku has come to see you," said a cheerful Togruta female from the doorway of Anakin's office. He turned his chair back to face her, pushing his hair back with the fingers of his cybernetic hand, and he nodded.

"Bring him in, Tima'a."

The Togruta female left and returned in a moment with a very old man hunched in a hovering support chair. Anakin rose respectfully to his feet and bowed his head after Tima'a left.

"Master," he said quietly. Count Dooku did not look well at all, which wasn't surprising given that he was over a hundred years of age now, but when he spoke, he was as dignified as ever.

"Sit, Anakin."

Anakin did. He would always be grateful to Dooku for showing him the corruption of the Jedi Order and of the Republic, for revealing to him the way that Darth Sidious was plotting to kill Padmé and the twins that Anakin had put inside of her. When Anakin had abandoned Obi-Wan Kenobi, killed Chancellor Palpatine, and become the Sith apprentice of Count Dooku, he had been rewarded beyond measure. Dooku had become, by his own admission, too old to be the public leadership of the Confederation. Ten years previously, Dooku had passed the Presidency to Anakin, who had become much beloved by the people.

Of course, Padmé had continued to harbor lingering sentimentality about the Republic and the Jedi, and that had begun to grate terribly on Anakin. When she suggested that he should turn down the office of the Presidency and instead try to reconcile with Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin had had no choice but to kill her. Nobody knew about that. Nobody but Anakin and Count Dooku. Not even Luke and Leia, who now served in their father's government, knew the truth about their mother's death.

"How are you feeling, Master?" Anakin asked, and Dooku feebly raised a hand to wave him off.

"I'm not here to discuss my health, Anakin. You know I have massive forces conducting sweeps of planets in the Outer Rim."

"Looking for remnants of the clone forces. Looking for evidence of Jedi insurgencies," Anakin nodded. Dooku continued, his voice a bit hoarse,

"Droids from the Dreadnought Snare tracked life forms on the jungle planet Scarif. They were using supply crates that had been planted at least five years ago; the crates still bore the symbol of the Republic. The group was captured, and security footage shows them making up a story about being pirates."

"So who were they really?" Anakin asked, drumming his cybernetic fingers on his desk. Count Dooku coughed roughly, and when he caught his breath, he said,

"A young woman was interrogated. She revealed herself to be called Jyn Erso. But her friends - and their droid, which bore a symbol similar but not identical to the Galactic Roundel - barged into the interrogation room. The captain of the Dreadnought, Krybus Rastin, was killed by blaster fire. The group seems to have escaped the Dreadnought aboard a stolen freighter."

Anakin felt a sudden surge of angry confusion go through him. He resisted the urge to throw the fancy chronometer on his desk at the wall. He'd done that before; he was trying a bit to rein in his outbursts. He sniffed and said in the lightest voice he could,

"Where is the group now? Where is the stolen freighter?"

Dooku's eyes darkened, and he admitted, "We do not know, Anakin. Special investigative forces have spent the last few days trying to override the shut off tracking system, but it seems to have been destroyed entirely.

Anakin narrowed his eyes. He pressed a button on his desk's comlink and barked, "Tima'a, get ahold of my daughter and have her come here as quickly as possible."

"Right away, President Skywalker," came the Togruta's scratchy voice. Count Dooku raised his white eyebrows and sounded almost amused as he asked,

"Challenging Leia to be a military leader again?"

Anakin sighed. "Luke is very strong in the Force, but it's Leia who can truly handle things like this. I don't trust anybody else. There's something very strange; I feel it in the Force. I know you do, too. Leia will find this Jyn Erso and bring her to me. And this time, the interrogation won't be interrupted."

* * *

"Let's order the nicest meal we've ever eaten," Jyn suggested. "For all we know, we'll be eating ration bars until we die."

"If we're not already dead," Cassian muttered, and Jyn lowered her eyes to her menu as she reminded the both of them,

"We're supposed to talk about happy things. Here's something happy. Fromirian roast queg. I've only heard about it; now I'm going to eat it. And I'm going to drink Merenzane Gold with you."

Cassian scoffed lightly and scratched at the place where his scruff usually darkened his jaw. He smiled a bit and pointed to his own menu. "Shellava fritters. And… yes, Merenzane Gold. Watered down, of course."

They placed their orders with the service droid when it came to their table, and then Jyn crossed her arms over her pale green tunic. She stared out the transparisteel at the light purple of the clouds below them, and she murmured,

"Why couldn't life be so lovely all along?"

"It is lovely," Cassian said, and when Jyn turned her face to look at him, his dark eyes seemed a bit wet. She licked her lips, still sheened copper, and she remembered the conversation topics they'd agreed upon. She kept her voice quiet, though their table was rather far away from the next one.

"What's your favorite planet?"

Cassian grinned, realizing what Jyn was doing, and he said without hesitation, "Kashyyyk."

Jyn nodded and gave the Imperial name of the planet after its native title had been stripped. "G5-623," she said. "Home planet of the Wookiees. Weren't they enslaved?"

"You'd never be able to convince them of that," Cassian said matter-of-factly, "and even after they'd been forced to cut down most of their trees, I still thought their planet was the most beautiful in the galaxy."

"A place of hope," Jyn said seriously. "My favorite planet is Corellia. It's not teeming and pulsing the way that Coruscant is, you know? And Coronet City is beautiful in this strange, run-down sort of way. I could live there forever."

Cassian nodded his approval and seemed to remember the second topic of conversation they'd mentioned earlier. He leaned across the table a little and whispered, "Tell me something that you find very funny."

Jyn rolled her eyes. "I've never had a very good sense of humor," she admitted, "but I think Kay-Tu is funny. He doesn't realize it, probably. You did a good job reprogramming him."

Cassian leaned back in his chair and put his hands up before him. "I didn't reprogram him to be a complete smart aleck. That's all Kay."

Jyn laughed then, and she folded her hands atop the elegant Veda tablecloth. She sighed and studied Cassian's handsome face for a moment. "Tell me what you think is funny."

Cassian opened his mouth, but then the service droid came wheeling up and wordlessly took a bottle of Merenzane Gold from its tray. It put two tumblers, each already filled a bit with water, down on the table and topped them off with the liquor.

"Your food will be out shortly," the service droid said in a tight mechanical voice. "May I get you anything else?"

"No, thank you." Jyn watched the droid wheel away, and she picked up her tumbler as she said to Cassian, "To second chances."

He nodded and raised his own glass, his face quite serious then. "To second chances."

Jyn drank, wincing at the sharp bite of the liquor. She set her glass down and cleared her throat a bit, taking a swig from her glass of plain water. Cassian spoke in a somber tone then as he said,

"Do you know what I think is funny?"

"No," Jyn said. "What?"

"I think it's funny that you and I died together, Jyn, and now we're drinking Merenzane Gold on Bespin. I think that's funny." Cassian frowned and studied Jyn's reaction. She sighed heavily and tapped her fingers on the table.

"That isn't comedy," she whispered. "It's a mystery. Learn your genres, Cassian Andor. And, anyway, we aren't meant to speak of such things. Look around you."

Cassian did look around, and he sucked in a breath that he held for a long time. Jyn looked outside at the clouds again, mesmerized by the elegant way they slowly churned. She heard Cassian ask,

"What is your idea of a perfect day?"

Jyn smiled a bit to herself at that. She still stared outside as she replied, "Waking up beside a very handsome man that I admire. Looking outside to see the most breathtaking skyscape there is. Getting my hair and makeup done in a ludicrously stylish way. Drinking Merezane Gold and eating Fromirian roast queg. And then going back to my room with that handsome, admirable man and leaving marks on one another."

When she turned and smiled at him, he looked very hungry, and not for food. Cassian's hands had tightened a bit on the edge of the table, and he shut his eyes.

"Jyn," he whispered, "why could I not have met you years ago? I have missed out on… on you ."

Jyn couldn't help but chuckle a bit at that. When Cassian scowled at her, she shrugged and said, "What does it matter now? We're here, wherever here is, and… you've got me now. And I've got you. Haven't I?"

"Yes." Cassian nodded. "Of course you do."

The service droid came with the food then, and they talked about Cloud City's shopping and the casinos and the starships they'd seen. Jyn had never tasted anything as delicious as Fromirian roast queg in her entire life, and by the time she was done with her glass of Merenzane Gold, her mind was swimming a bit. They paid and made their way back to the turbolift. When they were inside, Jyn grinned, knowing her smile was exaggerated by the liquor, and said,

"Well, that was indeed the finest meal I've ever eaten."

"I want to kiss you until all of that copper paint comes off your lips," Cassian said suddenly. Jyn burst into a fit of giggles. She knew that Cassian was a bit tipsy, as well, but he'd spoken with such seriousness that she could do nothing but laugh. She shook her head and watched as he smiled helplessly, and she told him,

"You'd better kiss me awfully hard. This stuff has staying power."

They were barely over the threshold of their room, the door having been slammed shut behind them, when Cassian seized Jyn by the shoulders and shoved her hard against the wall. She gasped with surprise and delight, rather adoring the urgency she could feel rolling off him in waves. His mouth crashed almost violently against Jyn's, his lips rubbing along hers. She laughed into the kiss as she realized he was trying to take off the copper lip stain, and she laughed even harder when he pulled away with flecks of copper all over his mouth.

"Come here," she chastised him, taking his jaw in one hand. She used the other thumb to brush the flakes away, and then she rolled her thumb aggressively around her own mouth. She smiled a little at Cassian and asked, "Are my lips normal again?"

"Beautifully normal," he nodded. This time when he kissed her, it felt glorious. A sort of rapture came over Jyn as she snaked her arms around his shoulders and let the kiss progress of its own accord. First their lips just brushed and touched, and then there was a bit of lip-sucking and tongues exploring. Things started to move a bit faster, to delve a bit deeper, and Jyn moaned softly against Cassian's mouth.

She felt his hands go behind her, and she leaned forward so he could unzip her pale green tunic. He took it off over her head, and Jyn deftly flicked her chest wrap open and tossed it aside. She stood self-consciously against the wall as Cassian's dark eyes brazenly studied her chest. One of his hands cupped a breast and massaged with surprising gentleness. Jyn let her head tip back against the wall a bit, and she reached blindly for the clasps going down the front of Cassian's own tunic. Somehow she managed to unfasten it, to push it away from his shoulders, all while taking the feel of his hands on her ribs and her breasts and her lower back.

Cassian rolled his hips forward and bent to kiss Jyn again. She felt the hard bulge beneath his trousers and whimpered, wanting to feel him inside her again. He'd been right, after all; this might be their last chance for something like this. He pulled at her leggings and underwear, and Jyn gamely wriggled out of them and kicked them away with her slouch boots. She cried out helplessly then, because Cassian had pressed two fingers between her legs and had begun rubbing her there, too.

The pulse of his fingers, with just enough pressure, and his lips on hers made Jyn positively dizzy. She held fast to his strong, bare shoulders and then let her hands trail down his sinewy arms. Her fingers made a move for the placket of his trousers, but Cassian pulled his mouth from hers and protested,

"Not yet, Jyn, or this entire thing will be over in two minutes. Let me suffer a little; I can take it."

Jyn smiled, seizing Cassian's hand and pulling him over to the bed. She sat cross-legged in the middle of the bed, waiting to see what Cassian would do next. She was not at all prepared for him to kick off his boots, come climbing up onto the bed, and urge her to lie against the pillows. She was even less prepared for the way he pushed her knees apart a bit and knelt there, beneath her, with his hands on her thighs.

"What are you doing?" Jyn asked worriedly, and Cassian gulped visibly before saying,

"The good thing about me being clean-shaven is… well… this is better without a moustache, probably."

"What's better?" Jyn demanded, feeling almost frightened. But Cassian stroked her thighs carefully and promised,

"You'll like it. And if you don't, tell me and I'll stop."

His face descended then, shocking Jyn into complete silence. She was silent and tense and unmoving when she felt Cassian's warm breath there , between her legs. Her hands grasped the blankets and she tried and failed to speak. But then there was the feeling of something warm and wet and wonderful, the sensation of his tongue dragging around her entrance in long, slow strokes. Jyn's head whirled and every scrap of her skin prickled. She arched her back a little, pushing herself against his face entirely against her will. Cassian's hands were still soothing her legs, rubbing just firmly enough so that she was confident that this was all real.

Jyn absolutely could not stay silent when Cassian's mouth started pulling at her with his lips. It was beyond blissful, the way his tongue and his lips worked together to create an overwhelming sensation. His hands tightened on her thighs, and Jyn reached to ensnare her own fingers in his sleek black hair. She couldn't help but hold him there, and she distantly hoped that she wasn't hurting him. He grunted against her with what sounded like need, and his mouth worked more quickly and deeply for a bit.

Jyn squirmed where she lay, feeling a tight coil of heat in her belly. Her ears started to ring, and her eyes wrenched themselves shut. Tighter and tighter her body became until she felt her toes curl and she heard herself saying Cassian's name in a volume just short of a shriek. Her walls were clenching around his mouth, she knew. But she was lost then, like she was drowning in honey.

When she finally came back to the hotel room, yanked out of her ecstasy by the sound of her name, she could see that Cassian was shucking his trousers with shaking hands.

"Please, Jyn," he was mumbling desperately, but all Jyn could do was stare. Once Cassian was kneeling, rid entirely of his clothes, his cheeks darkened and he said breathlessly, "Will you… would you face the wall and go up on your knees? Please, I… Jyn ."

He sounded as though he had very little control of himself then. Jyn's body flushed anew with desire and anticipation. She did what he said; she heaved herself up on legs that still wobbled from what he'd done to her. She turned to the wall and planted her palms on the wall, curious as to what the benefit of this position was.

She quickly found out.

Cassian took Jyn's hips in his hands and urged her to tip back a little. He pushed into her, which took no effort at all because of how ready she was for him. When he began to move, bucking himself into her in a fluid, rapid rhythm, he wrapped his arms around her. His left hand touched her breast, squeezing and caressing. His right fingers settled against the place where their bodies were linked, as if he enjoyed the feel of himself taking her.

Jyn shut her eyes and soaked it all in, leaning against the wall for support. In and out, in and out, rapid and urgent and the most natural thing in the galaxy. It lasted half a moment or an hour; she couldn't tell at all. She had dissolved straight into this, into the way Cassian's body fit so neatly with hers. She was only distantly aware of the way he buried himself to the hilt and growled her name as he throbbed and finished inside of her.

He didn't take his arms from her, even when he went soft, even when obscene little trickle of fluid ran down the inside of Jyn's thigh. He just embraced her, and when Jyn rotated toward him, he kept embracing her. Jyn's knees were shaking, but she couldn't bring herself to pull away. They'd been wrapped up in one another like this before. Standing on that beach on Scarif, just before the shockwave had washed over them. Just before they'd died.

And, Jyn realized, they'd been like this right after they'd died, too. When they'd awakened in this new reality, they had been laced together like this. Perhaps, she thought with a dim glimmer of hope, they were meant to be attached. Perhaps they were supposed to think fondly of one another, to want one another, to touch one another like this. Perhaps it wasn't avoidable. Perhaps it just was. Perhaps they just were.

"I need a shower," Jyn mumbled against Cassian's neck, "and so do you."

He let her go then, looked very affectionately at her as she crawled from the bed and staggered toward the fresher. She paused in the threshold, her hand on the doorjamb as she faced away from Cassian.

It had been weeks now since the incident on Scarif. She'd liked Cassian during the mess with the Death Star, of course. But in the last weeks, her feelings for him had deepened beyond anything she would have thought possible. She dreamed of him at night. She liked his body, his words, his kindness toward her. And she knew that she no longer wanted to live, to exist in any capacity, in any permutation, without Cassian Andor.

So Jyn turned over her shoulder and said something that may have been very, very foolish. It was something she hadn't said to anyone in years, not since the days when she was living in hiding with her parents. But she knew it was true, so she said it.

"I love you, Cassian."

His dark eyes went very wide, and his mouth dropped open, but Jyn didn't give him a chance to answer her. She walked into the fresher and shut the door, and as the automatic shower battered her with soap and water, she reminded herself that tomorrow they would leave this place and find themselves in a crowd on a swamp.

* * *

Cloud City

Bespin

"Bay 1917, right?" Jyn shifted nervously on her feet, glancing around the hangar. There were many scattered around Cloud City, and she wanted to ensure they had the right location so that the stolen ship would be on Bespin for the least amount of time possible. She pointed to the doorway marked 1917 and asked Cassian, "How much longer until they're here?"

"Any minute now," Cassian answered. "We should head out to the pad."

Jyn walked with him through the doorway onto the windy catwalk that stuck out as a spoke from the central hangar. She felt a bit dizzy when she made the mistake of looking down. When she raised her eyes back up, she could see an incoming black freighter, and she finally felt her racing heart settle a little.

"Here they come," she whispered, her voice swallowed by the wind.

"Jyn," she heard Cassian say rather seriously. She turned her face to him and saw that his dark eyes were glittering with determination. He nodded and said in a firm tone, "I love you, too, Jyn Erso."

Jyn smiled and reached for his hand, which she squeezed tightly as the stolen ship made its final approach. It settled onto the landing pad, and then there was a hiss and a whirr as the loading door was opened and a ramp slid down. Nobody appeared at the top of the ramp, so Cassian shrugged and started walking up. Jyn was uneasy as she followed him. It made sense, of course, that neither K-2 nor Bodhi would come outside, but walking straight onto a ship like this set off all manner of alarms in her mind.

But once she was onboard, she and Cassian were wrapped up by Bodhi's thin arms. He started talking quickly about how terrible Dagobah was, and asking if they couldn't all just stay here on Bespin. K-2 cut in quickly,

"I was informed that I couldn't gamble here because of the urgency of leaving. So, let's leave."

The towering droid made his way to the co-pilot's chair, and Jyn laughed as Bodhi huffed a sigh and said,

"He's been loads of fun."

"You are obviously being sarcastic," said K-2SO. "Let's go, Bodhi Rook. It's urgent, remember?"

Jyn and Cassian settled themselves into harnessed chairs for the departure, but once they'd cleared Bespin and entered hyperspace, everyone loosened themselves from their trappings.

"So," Bodhi said, rubbing his hands together. "You said you got some information."

"Quite a lot of information, as it happens," said Jyn. She opened the bag on her shoulder and pulled out the holozine she'd stolen from the beauty salon. She showed Bodhi and K-2 the articles about Confederation President Skywalker, and she showed them the place where her name had been listed as a wanted criminal.

"Well," Bodhi sighed, "it's clear there's no Empire here. We assumed that. Those of us on Dagobah. That's why we painted over K-2's bodywork."

Jyn looked at K-2SO's shoulders and saw that the white Imperial symbols there had been spray-painted roughly with some black paint. The others must have found it aboard the ship, Jyn thought. It was a rather obvious patch job, but it was probably better than nothing.

"Your hair is different, Jyn Erso," said K-2. "The color is more red than brown now, and it has been cut and straightened." Jyn threw her eyebrows up and said,

"Good observation, Kay-Tu. You think I look different enough not to be recognized?"

"No." K-2SO's illuminated eyes went between Cassian and Jyn then, and he said, "Something else is different, too. The way you and Cassian act toward one another. Your mutual body language is more comfortable. You look at one another often. I think the odds that you two have already -"

"Kay-Tu…" There was warning in Cassian's voice, and poor Bodhi cleared his throat awkwardly and said,

"The others have set up a basic camp on Dagobah using supplies from this ship. But I have to be honest with you. It's not a good hiding place. There's nothing there. No way to resupply. There's no way to get news. Nothing feels even semi-permanent about it."

"And then there's fact that the swamps smell absolutely rancid," K-2 complained, "and the lightning storms are so bad that I got short-circuited. There are occasional downsides to being the tallest thing in a clearing."

"I know where we should go," Jyn said suddenly. When the others looked curiously at her, she said, "We should pick the others up and go to Naboo. The human capital city there is called Theed. I visited it once, years ago, with Saw Gerrera. It's a peaceful place, or at least it was in the permutation I knew. It's not swarming with politics the way Coruscant is. But we could settle into city life there pretty easily."

"Wait." Cassian shook his head. "Naboo. Isn't that where Anakin Skywalker's wife was from? They're hosting events for this anniversary celebration."

"Yes." Jyn nodded frantically. "Exactly. A documentary. We could attend, all of us, in disguise. Kay, you probably couldn't come. But we'd learn a lot from that."

" You would. I wouldn't, since I'm not welcome at this documentary screening," K-2 complained. Jyn scowled at him and said,

"You stick out. And up."

"Don't you think it's dangerous to go to an event honoring this government when they're the ones that have a bounty on us?" Cassian demanded. "The captain I killed? The Dreadnought we escaped? It belonged to the government run by this Anakin Skywalker. Why would we go to his wife's home planet for a celebration of him?"

"Because," Jyn said matter-of-factly, "they won't be looking for us in a big crowd. They'll be scanning empty spaces for us. And we all saw how that tactic worked out on Scarif."

"I guess you're not wrong," Cassian said, standing up straight and crossing his arms over his chest. "If this government is anything like the Empire, it's easier to hide among the horde than on a barely-populated planet."

"Even one with stinking swamps." Bodhi asked with a smirk. He nodded and glanced back to the cockpit. "Once we come out of hyperspace, I'll send a communication to the others informing them that this is a pick up."

"So this ship is really just a taxi," said K-2SO sourly. "And I'm just the co-pilot of the taxi. And we're all just running around, confused. Oh, and we're all dead. Probably. Yes, I like all of this. This is all very pleasant."

With that, he stormed off, toward a wall of holobooks, where he mumbled something about finding a distracting romance novel.

* * *

Confederation Headquarters

Coruscant

"This is all we have?" Leia asked, glancing down to the holodoc she had been given. "A few images and one name?"

"Yes," Anakin said hesitantly. He narrowed his eyes at his daughter, who had come in a crisp white military uniform and her hair in a neat bun beneath her captain's cap. He licked his bottom lip and admitted, "The girl's name is Jyn Erso. The name does not appear in any official records."

"Papa," Leia said, setting the holodoc down the table and shaking her head, "May I speak plainly?"

"I think you'll probably speak plainly whether I give you permission or not, so go ahead," Anakin said tightly. Leia sighed and touched her fingertips to the edge of the holodoc.

"Sometimes, Papa… only sometimes… I think you pursue things just because you don't have a good way to explain them."

Anakin felt a little flare of anger toward his precocious daughter. She was so like her mother; Padmé had been just as stubborn as Leia was now. He gnawed on his lip and demanded, "You think it's pointless to track down a band of miscreants who were found using materials with old Republic emblems? People who escaped detention and killed the captain of a Dreadnought? My captain. My ship, Leia. You think that's pointless?"

"It's not pointless, Papa," Leia said quietly. Her eyes, brown like her mother's, studied the holodoc again, and then she looked up at Anakin. Her voice was more solid as she told him, "Luke is doing everything he can to track down Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi. I've got military operations all over the galaxy. I can't be looking for five random humans and a droid, Papa; I just finished putting down the insurrection on Lothal early this morning, and -"

"Oh, was that mission successful?" Anakin cut in. Leia's cheeks went pink and she frowned, but she nodded. Anakin smirked at her. "Good girl. So… you're too busy to find the people that killed the captain of a Dreadnought. Is that what you're telling me?"

"No, Papa." Leia huffed in frustration and knitted her fingers together on her lap. "What evidence do we have that these people are any particular danger?"

"They made up a story about being pirates," Anakin said, throwing up his eyebrows, "which means they're not pirates. They're something else. I need to know why they were on Scarif and why they were so hesitant to tell the truth on the Dreadnought."

"And we have absolutely no more information other than these security images and the girl's name? Jyn? Jyn Erso?" Leia's eyes went wide and she shrugged. Anakin cleared his throat carefully and said,

"The best clue we have comes from your fiancé, as it happens."

"Please stop calling him that, Papa. I haven't decided yet," Leia said, sounding disgusted as her lip curled up. Anakin ignored her.

"Orson Krennic knew a man called Galen Erso during his years in the Republic Futures Program. Erso, apparently, was killed when he was traveling to the Institute of Applied Science before the Clone Wars broke out."

"Killed how?" Leia frowned, looking suspicious, and Anakin admitted,

"Krennic didn't know many specifics. Erso's ship failed, he said. Was knocked out of hyperspace and crashed onto the surface of Elom. The bodies were recovered among the wreckage by a Republic investigation team."

Leia frowned more deeply than ever. "How do you know Krennic isn't lying?"

Anakin leaned back in his bantha leather chair and crossed his arms over his chest. "I'm very good at telling when someone is lying, Leia. You should know that by now."

"I do, Papa," Leia mumbled. Her cheeks went pink again, and he knew she was remembering the awful times she'd tried to lie to him during her petulant teenage years. In that way, she really was his daughter. Always trying to weasel her way out of things. Things like marriage.

"I need you to marry Orson Krennic," Anakin said quite firmly, "and I need you to find Jyn Erso for me."

He did not leave any of that open for debate, but Leia still found a way to scowl at him and tip her head. "First of all, Papa… I will do my best to find this Jyn Erso and the men and the droid that were with her. I will. But I don't want to marry Orson Krennic. He is… first of all, he is entirely too old. He's older than you! By ten years! And he's extremely boring."

"No one's asking you to chat with him over muja muffins in the mornings, Leia," Anakin said, drumming his fingertips on his desk. "You'll continue your own military career. But if I'm going to keep my power secure, I have to ensure loyalty from anyone who might pose a threat to me. Orson Krennic is a well-respected engineer with boundless ambition."

"So you'd marry your daughter off to an old man you view as a threat?" Leia threw her hands up in frustration, and Anakin's ears went hot with anger. He pursed his lips and said,

"I would much rather not force you."

"Oh. Good. Thank you, Papa. I appreciate that," Leia said, though the sarcasm in her voice was very evident. She looked a bit hurt then as her eyes went wet, and she said, "I don't have a choice, do I?"

"No." Anakin knew that his daughter had learned over the years not to test her father's patience. But just to make everything very clear to her, he said, "It would look better for everyone involved if I was not summoning you down the aisle with the Force. You'll marry him on Naboo during the anniversary celebrations."

Leia's mouth fell open. "That's in three weeks!" she exclaimed.

"Your mother was always very good at getting elaborate clothes made at the last minute," Anakin said lightly. "Spend whatever you need to on the dress and all that. You'll marry him in Theed on the day of the documentary premiere. People will be elated to see the President's daughter marry one of his most widely-respected Commanders."

"Oh, I'm sure people will just be thrilled," Leia said darkly. She snatched the holodoc from the desk and asked in a voice that was clearly damming back tears, "Can I take this, Papa? I'll need the photos, since that's literally the only information I have for finding these fugitives."

"Take it," Anakin said, waving his cybernetic hand dismissively. "You can give it back when you deliver Jyn Erso and the others to me."

Leia rose from her chair. She did not salute him or make any other kind of obeisance the way others did when leaving his office. She just stormed out, the holodoc tucked under her arm, and Anakin watched her go. Poor Orson Krennic was going to have a handful of a wife, he thought.


	4. Chapter 4

Dagobah

"Ugh! You weren't kidding about the smell, Kay-Tu." Cassian stepped down the loading ramp and pulled a face at the awful stench of the swamp in which they'd landed. Jyn followed him, looking around the dim, misty island of moss onto which the shuttle had been set down. She was socked hard by the humidity of Dagobah; the air felt so wet that Jyn thought perhaps it was actually raining.

"This planet is an abominable cesspool, and I eagerly await the moment we leave. I only hope the smell doesn't get into the ship," said K-2SO, who lingered at the top of the ramp as though he morally objected to setting foot on Dagobah again.

Jyn yelped a little and swatted like mad when an enormous insect buzzed by her face. Suddenly she heard a low, rumbling laugh, and Baze Malbus emerged from between the trunks of two mighty trees.

"Chirrut," he said, "the rescue team is here."

"Yes, well… hurry up and get onboard, will you?" Jyn said, swatting again as the insect decided it quite liked her head.

"Naboo is much more civilized than this dreadful place," whined K-2. "Let's go there. Let's go to Naboo now."

"Patience," said Chirrut Imwe, holding up a hand. "Baze, tell them what we found."

Baze spoke carefully from the bottom of the ramp then. "Symbols carved into tree trunks at random intervals. Two wings flared up to form a circle, with a spike and star in the center."

"And do we have any idea what that symbol means?" Jyn asked, giving up entirely on the insect that was now nibbling at her hair.

"Jedi," said Chirrut in a reverent tone. "I felt the symbol with my fingers, and in it I could feel the Force flowing. That is the symbol of the Jedi Order, and this place is practically pulsing with the Force. I can say it here more definitively than I have said it anywhere else. Here on Dagobah… I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me."

Jyn frowned at Cassian in confusion. Bodhi spoke then, sounding almost resigned as he said,

"You want to stay here, don't you, Chirrut?"

Chirrut smiled a bit, his milky eyes looking peaceful as he nodded. "If I am not already dead, and I die here of starvation, then I will die happy. I can not leave this place… this place of the Force, this place of the Jedi. I am not coming with you."

"I've spent the last day trying to convince him," Baze said, flashing each of them a sad little smile. "He keeps saying that if this is the afterlife, great. If it's a parallel world, great. You've seen him in combat; we won't be able to drag him off this planet."

"I could try," said K-2SO, but Cassian shook his head at the droid. He looked down the ramp at Baze and said simply,

"And you?"

Baze turned his face to Chirrut and sighed rather deeply. "Well, he's not leaving Dagobah, and I'm not leaving him. So…"

"So we just landed in this wretched swamp for no reason?" K-2 demanded. Jyn glared at him and shushed him. She stepped down the ramp and took Baze's hand in both of hers.

"We fought side by side," she reminded him, "and I will always be grateful for your miraculous courage. Be well, Baze."

"Jyn Erso." Baze petted Jyn's smooth hair and his eyes crinkled with a little smile. "You stay out of the way on Naboo, will you? Make a good life for yourself in this place. Stop running, for once in your life."

Jyn nodded. She moved to stand before Chirrut, and he blinked his blank eyes quickly a few times. Jyn felt her own eyes burn a little as she told him,

"Whatever paradise there is to be had in this galaxy, Chirrut, I hope you find it here."

"I already have, Jyn," Chirrut said. He reached for her hand and squeezed it, and utter peace came over his face as he murmured, "May the Force be with you."

"Goodbye, then," Jyn whispered. She turned quickly and walked up the ramp, determined not to get any more emotional than she already was. She waited inside the shuttle, knowing that Bodhi and Cassian had their own farewells to say. She was staring out the viewport near the pilot's seat when she heard K-2SO ask from behind her,

"Jyn Erso, are you in love with Cassian?"

Jyn didn't turn around. She swallowed hard and nodded silently. K-2 let out an almost exasperated sound, and he complained,

"Love. What a silly human experience."

"Kay, I promise you that you have no idea what you're talking about," Jyn said. She turned to him, arms crossed over her chest, and stared up at his mechanical face. "Love is not something that can be programmed. It isn't silly. You could never understand."

K-2SO was silent for a long moment, and finally he said, "You are currently experiencing an emotion that I can't identify. Explain it, please."

"Grief." Jyn's eyes burned worse than ever. She choked out a little laugh and swiped at her eyes as she added, "An existential crisis."

"Ah," said K-2. "An existential crisis. Now that I can understand. Nothing is more programmable than that."

Before Jyn could say anything else, Bodhi and Cassian had come back aboard the shuttle, and the loading ramp was closing behind them.

"Well," Bodhi said sadly, "I guess that's that."

"I guess that's that," Cassian echoed, pacing slowly around the interior of the ship. He gestured up to the co-pilot's chair and said in an absent tone, "Go on, then, Kay-Tu. Let's go to Naboo."

* * *

Theed

Naboo

"Wow." Jyn stood on the balcony of the two-bedroom apartment she and the others had rented under a pseudonym. She looked out across the green-roofed city before her and marveled, "It certainly is civilized, Kay."

"And we'll have a fantastic view of the parade from here," K-2SO said as he walked out onto the balcony. Bodhi followed close behind him and demanded,

"What parade?"

"Maybe you should pay closer attention," K-2 said lightly. "While you all were setting up the rent for this apartment, I was listening. A group downstairs said there is a parade this afternoon."

"Right here?" Jyn asked nervously. "Here on this street?"

"The people downstairs claimed the parade was going to go right by here," K-2SO confirmed. "I'm looking forward to it. I adore parades."

"What parades have you ever seen?" Cassian demanded, and K-2 stared silently at him for a moment as though he were very stupid.

"Don't you remember the Midnight Festival on Ryloth, Cassian? That was quite a parade."

"Oh. Mm-hmm." Cassian's cheeks went very red. Jyn had to stifle a grin. The Midnight Festival parade was known throughout the galaxy and involved quite a few mostly naked dancing Twi'lek females.

"I'm so tired I could just lie down out here in the sun and sleep," Bodhi said. "If we're going to watch a parade this afternoon, I need a nap."

Jyn blinked a few times, realizing she was tired, too. None of them had slept between Dagobah and Naboo, and when they'd landed here, it had been morning. They could all use some rest, probably, before taking in the festivities. Cassian nodded and said,

"Jyn and I will take the bedroom with the double bed if it's all the same to you, Bodhi."

"No protest from me." Bodhi put his hands up and grinned, and K-2SO said in a sarcastic tone,

"But, Bodhi, I wanted to share the double bed with you."

Jyn cackled shamelessly at that. She patted K-2's metal arm and said, "There are a lot of holozines in the sitting room, and there's an imagecaster. I'm sure you'll find a way to entertain yourself, Kay-Tu."

"Oh, all right, then," K-2SO said. He had to bend to step back into the apartment, and as the others followed, Bodhi said,

"I'll set an alarm on my chronometer." He gestured down to the device his belt.

"Oh, don't worry," said K-2. "I'll wake you all at the first hint of a parade."

Jyn and Cassian made their way into the small, clean bedroom with its plush-looking double bed. This space felt so different from the white, cool hotel room on Bespin. Everything here was warm and gold, with accents of reds and dark greens. Cassian pushed a button on the wall, and the opaque glass bedroom door slid shut. He drew the curtains on the window shut, and he started to strip off his tight trousers and shirt.

Jyn wordlessly pulled off her own boots, deciding that her leggings were comfortable enough for a nap. She settled herself under the blankets and stared at the ceiling as Cassian slid in beside her.

"Do you think we'll ever see them again?" she asked. "Baze and Chirrut."

"Who knows?" Cassian sighed helplessly. "I didn't think I would ever see you again after that blinding moment on the beach, but here we are. On Naboo. Waiting for a parade."

"Life is a very, very, very strange thing," Jyn decided aloud. She turned and curled herself up on Cassian's chest. He kissed the top of her head, which made her want a kiss on her lips. She tipped her face up to him, and Cassian's mouth met hers. He kissed her for a long while, his hand petting her hair. Jyn felt a warm sort of happiness go through her veins, and she pressed her body more tightly against Cassian's.

"Do you know," Cassian whispered finally, "that last night in Cloud City, when you went into the fresher?"

"You mean when I told you that I loved you," Jyn nodded, brushing her lips against his. Cassian hummed against her and continued,

"I felt this twist in my chest, Jyn. This sort of clench. Like my heart was waking up and bursting all at once."

"Are you quite certain you weren't having a heart attack?" Jyn joked, and Cassian shook his head rather seriously.

"I've never loved anybody," he told her, "but I do love you, and I want to tell you why."

Jyn sat back a little on her knees and nodded at Cassian. "All right. Tell me why."

Cassian sighed deeply and reached to tuck Jyn's hair behind her ear. "You're beautiful, of course," he began, and Jyn smirked. Cassian swallowed hard and carried on. "You so rarely seem afraid. Sometimes I can tell you are afraid, but I can also tell that you don't want anybody to know. You're so brave, Jyn, down to your bones."

"I don't feel brave," Jyn protested. Cassian pulled her face to his and kissed her once, delicately.

"You jumped," he said. When Jyn frowned at him, confused, he clarified,

"In the vault, when we were getting the plans for the Death Star… we had to jump, and you didn't hesitate. So unafraid."

"No. I was very afraid," Jyn corrected him. She opened her mouth and tried to think of something else to say, but Cassian pressed on,

"I can't help but love you, Jyn. I don't need you to accept my reasons why; I just need you to accept that I do."

"I can accept that," Jyn told him, "as long as you can accept that I loved you first. Or, at least, I told you first."

Cassian quirked up half his mouth and teased, "Does that make you very proud?"

"It does," Jyn laughed. She kissed Cassian with everything she had, trying to pour herself into him through her lips. They settled together on the bed, both of them seeming to realize that they had a finite amount of time to nap before the parade. Jyn put her head on Cassian's bare chest and shut her eyes, feeling his fingers coursing over her hair. She listened to his heartbeat, the same way she'd done on Scarif, and she fell asleep.

* * *

Theed

Naboo

"This is the most ridiculous dress I have ever seen in my life," Leia complained. She huffed angrily as she stood on the hoverfloat that would carry her, along with Anakin, down the parade route.

Anakin frowned at his daughter's intransigence. The gown she wore had belonged to Padmé once upon a time. Anakin might have killed his wife in anger, but he still held her fondly in his memory. The vibrant red off-the-shoulder gown with flounces on the sleeves and around the bottom of the skirt didn't even vaguely resemble anything Leia would wear under normal circumstances. Her hair was in a tight braid down her back, with golden thread woven in so that it would glimmer in the sunlight. Still, Anakin thought his daughter looked rather nice.

Leia yanked at her skirts as Anakin stepped up onto the float, his black cape billowing behind him as he did. He said in a quiet tone to Leia,

"Luke is in the Outer Rim. He won't be here."

"And Krennic?" Leia demanded. Anakin cocked up an eyebrow and said,

"He's going to be your husband; you should probably call him by his first name."

Leia rolled her eyes. "On second thought, Papa, I don't care where Krennic is today."

"You've grown too bold in your petulance, Leia," Anakin chastised her. Then he tipped his head and said, "For what it's worth, Orson Krennic is in charge of security for the day. Would you rather trade in your mother's gown for a military uniform and… actually, don't answer that."

"President Skywalker, sir, the parade is about to begin," said a woman in a crisp uniform from below the float. Anakin glanced down and nodded, and the woman explained, "There are several entertainment floats - a flower showcase, some singing and dancing - and then you'll bring up the rear."

"Are we waving?" Leia asked nervously, and Anakin scoffed as he shook his head.

"You can wave," he told her. "I'm not waving. I'm standing here."

"While the people scream for you," Leia sighed. Anakin narrowed his eyes at her, jutting his jaw out in anger.

"What the blazes has gotten into you?" he demanded. Leia's cheeks went red and her brown eyes glistened as she shook her head and whispered,

"Please don't make me do it, Papa."

Anakin growled in frustration. "You're telling me that your disobedience and foul behavior is all because of Orson Krennic?"

Leia shut her eyes, smoothing the skirts that Padmé had once worn. "I don't want to marry him. Please… please don't make me."

Anakin's stomach yanked oddly then. He licked his lip and stared at his daughter. He loved Leia, just as he loved Luke, but he also demanded obedience and loyalty from them. Now he needed to weigh his options. After a long moment of thought, he tipped Leia's face up until she looked at him, and he said,

"Fine. You won't marry Orson Krennic. You'll have increased public responsibilities representing my administration. You'll have increased military duties. If that's the life you want, Leia, you'll live it to my satisfaction."

Leia grinned and nodded. "Thank you, Papa."

Anakin scowled as their float began to move. In order to cut off Leia's engagement with Orson Krennic, he would need to kill Krennic and frame it as an accident or the work of his enemies. Anakin snarled under his breath as he realized how effectively his children could force his hand sometimes.

"Here we go," he mumbled, for the hoverfloat was making its way through the gates of the staging area behind the old palace and had pulled onto the parade route. There were thousands of people lining the streets, waving and shouting and grinning. Anakin had said he wasn't going to wave, but something compelled him to put up a hand every now and then to acknowledge the people.

This was what he had always wanted, he realized. To be recognized for his potential, to have his achievements lauded, his power adored. This was the culmination of his deepest longings. So he soaked it in as completely as he could. The parade went on for quite a while, but the crowds alongside the road stayed as thick as ever. After nearly an hour of slowly floating down the roads, Anakin felt an odd twinge in the Force. He looked to Leia, whose diplomatic smile had disappeared. Her eyes were locked on a balcony, and Anakin followed her gaze upward.

"Jyn Erso," Leia breathed. Anakin's vision wasn't as good as it had once been, but now he could see. A towering droid, two men that looked awfully familiar, and… yes. It was her. It was the girl from the Dreadnought. Suddenly Leia was yanking a small comlink from the pocket hidden in her gown's voluminous skirts. She pressed a button on the side of the device and said sharply,

"Come in, Security."

Anakin tried to stay poised during the silence from the comlink. His eyes stayed locked on the balcony where Jyn Erso so brazenly stood with the others, and his rage flared in his chest. The group was talking among themselves, and then they vanished off the balcony through a door.

"Kriffing stars," Leia muttered. She pressed the side of the comlink again and barked, "Come in, Security!"

"This is Commander Krennic. Go ahead."

Leia rolled her eyes and huffed as she pressed the side of the comlink again. "Wanted criminals are escaping through an apartment building. Fifteen degrees left of the President's float. Building is numbered 812. Apprehend immediately. You're looking for two dark-haired male humans, a very tall droid, and a petite female human called Jyn Erso. Repeat, apprehend at once and take them to the palace. Do you copy?"

There was another silence. Anakin tried to breathe, tried not to blow up the apartment building with the Force. He forced what was certainly an ugly grimace of a smile onto his face and held his hand up in greeting again.

"Copy that, Captain Skywalker. We have sixteen local troopers on the task; I'm headed there now."

"Thank you, Commander Krennic," Leia said. She tucked the comlink into her gown's pocket again and glanced over to Anakin. Her face had gone white, but she shrugged and said, "I told you I'd find her, Papa. I just didn't know she'd make it so easy."

Anakin said nothing. Half of him was very glad that Krennic's forces were about to capture this band of ragtag murderers. The other half of him was irritated that he'd let Leia talk him into releasing her from her engagement. If Orson Krennic did bring Jyn Erso to Anakin, it would become a far more difficult task to grant Leia her wish.

* * *

Theed

Naboo

"Go. We need to go. Now. Come on." Cassian snatched a blaster from the bedside table and shoved it into Jyn's hands. She gripped it carefully and trotted through the apartment with the others.

"I hope you didn't pay an entire month's rent in advance," said K-2. Jyn ignored him. As Bodhi peeked out of the apartment door into the hallway, he said over his shoulder,

"We're never going to make it out of this city alive."

"Maybe not," Cassian admitted, "but none of us, in our last moments, thought we'd make it off Scarif alive, either."

"Wait, Bodhi," Jyn insisted, and Bodhi turned back a little. She swallowed hard and said, "We need a plan. We need to get back to the hangar where we put the stolen ship. Does everyone remember where that is?"

Cassian and Bodhi nodded, and K-2 said matter-of-factly, "Right onto the back street, go straight for three blocks, left, straight ahead."

Jyn glanced at the other three. "Cassian and Kay-Tu, you two stay together and try and get to the hangar. Bodhi, you should stay with me?"

"Why?" Cassian asked, sounding almost offended. Jyn tightened her lips and looked straight into the eyes of the man she loved so much.

"Because," she told him, "You and Kay-Tu need each other to pilot that ship. Bodhi could fly it on his own, and I can't fly at all. In case one pair is… you know…"

"Killed," K-2 finished, and Jyn nodded.

"Right," Cassian said, his bronze skin going a little pale. He impulsively grabbed Jyn's face and kissed her square on the mouth. Mercifully, K-2SO had no sarcastic comments about it just now. Cassian pulled away, and when he did, Jyn felt a little piece of her soul go with him. She watched him as he said,

"Come on, Kay-Tu."

Cassian and K-2SO moved quickly out of the apartment. Cassian took careful, low strides, and K-2 stalked quite purposefully behind him. Jyn took a shaking breath and gave a weak smile to Bodhi.

"What is Leia Organa doing here?" Bodhi asked, shaking his head. He'd never seen Leia in person, nor an image of her, but when the others had informed him of who she was in the Rebel Alliance, Bodhi had become abruptly confused and terrified. "Is she… do you think she's his wife, in this permutation? The wife of the President?"

"No." Jyn shut her eyes for a moment and remembered the way Anakin Skywalker and Leia had moved around each other. She thought back to the protective way her own father had behaved around her. His occasional irritation with her. She looked at Bodhi and said, "She's his daughter."

Bodhi shook his head and admitted, "I'm tired of looking for answers. I just want to stay alive."

"Me, too," Jyn nodded. "Let's go. One… two… three."

She and Bodhi dashed out the apartment door, with Jyn leading the way. Their feet clattered down the staircase and through the lobby of the apartment building. Out one side of the building, the throngs were still present from the parade. Jyn considered, for a half second, tucking her blaster away and trying to get lost in the crowd. But then she saw the metallic uniforms of some armored troopers, and she gestured for Bodhi to follow her out the back.

They turned right and ran as fast as they could down the narrow street. The parade wasn't visible from here, so there was no one else in sight. Jyn's legs pumped on the stones, and she heard a voice behind her bark,

"Halt. Halt right where you are."

"Keep going, Jyn!" Bodhi screamed. Jyn could tell he wasn't keeping up with her. She looked over her shoulder and saw two troopers in white and blue armor aiming their blasters,

"Run, Bodhi! Come on!" Jyn cried. Bodhi did run after her, but all of a sudden a vibrant red bolt shot forth from one of the trooper's weapons. It struck Bodhi's leg as he ran, and he crumpled. Jyn shrieked and whirled round.

"No!" she cried, looking at Bodhi's motionless form. She aimed her blaster at the troopers and fired at one and then the other. Her bolts sailed accurately toward each of them, hitting the weak points under their arms. The troopers collapsed, and Jyn knew they wouldn't get back up. Still, when she ran toward Bodhi, she kept her eyes on the troopers to ensure they weren't moving. She crouched down to Bodhi, who was moaning in pain and rolling a bit in agony. He seemed barely conscious. Jyn shook her head helplessly. There was no way she was going to be able to carry Bodhi all the way to the hangar, but she couldn't possibly leave him here.

"Please get out of my way, Jyn Erso," came a familiar mechanical voice from up and behind. Jyn looked over her shoulder to see K-2SO and Cassian.

"Is he alive?" Cassian asked, his eyes flicking to the troopers Jyn had shot. Jyn nodded, but since she hadn't moved yet, K-2 shoved her out of the way. She huffed as her body flew against the wall of the building beside the street. K-2 effortlessly picked Bodhi up and cradled him in his arms. Jyn picked up K-2's blaster and handed it to Cassian, and she took Bodhi's.

"Let's go," Cassian insisted, and Jyn arranged each hand carefully on a blaster pistol as she nodded. The group made their way down the narrow road for another block. They stopped where they were supposed to turn left, and Cassian crept over to to the corner. He peeked his face around the building wall and cursed under his breath.

"Two battle droids in between here and the hangar," he said. He shut his eyes and sighed, and he told Jyn, "I'm going to take the shot, and then we're going to run hard."

Jyn looked back to where K-2SO stood silently holding Bodhi, who was visibly breathing but had gone entirely unconscious. She nodded at Cassian and watched as he leaped out from the wall and aimed both his blaster pistols at once.

"That guy has weapons," said a droid's voice from beyond the building. Before the other droid could answer, Cassian loosed one bolt and then another. He fired a third shot, so Jyn figured one of the shots to the droids must have missed. His face twisted oddly, but he shouted,

"Come on! Get to the hangar!"

Jyn sprinted after him, down the alley that led to the hangar. She passed the destroyed shells of the battle droids, and then she saw where Cassian's third shot had gone. There was a human, too, a corpse lying in a heap beyond the droids. Jyn kept her blasters up, but her steps and her concentration faltered when she saw the face of the man Cassian had shot dead. She gasped and shook her head.

"That can't be…"

"Yes, it is," Cassian yelled back at her. "Yes, that is Orson Krennic."

"What a very bizarre permutation this is turning out to be," said K-2SO from behind Jyn. Her heart raced so quickly, from the running and from the sudden injection of fear, that she thought she might collapse. Somehow, she made it into the hangar with Cassian. She kept her blasters aimed ahead of her. In the distance of the round hangar, she spotted two battle droids.

"Cassian, get the loading ramp open!" she shouted. She shot one droid and then the other, and they squealed mechanically as the bolts struck them. It took Jyn five total shots to destroy the droids, but once they were down, she could see that K-2SO was carrying Bodhi up the ramp of the ship they'd stolen from the Dreadnought. Jyn walked backwards up the ramp, still aiming her blasters and scanning the hangar with frantic eyes. Once she was on board the ship, she said in a shaking voice, "K-2, put Bodhi on the bunk and I'll see to him. Get us out of here, Cassian."

"Where are we running away to now?" K-2 asked as he put Bodhi on the same bunk where Jyn had recovered after they'd fled the Dreadnought. Jyn immediately got to work pulling medical supplies out of the storage cabinet along one of the freighter's walls. She heard Cassian call to her,

"Jyn… Scarif?"

Jyn's hands froze where she stood with the medical supplies. She turned to the cockpit, where K-2SO had thrown his hands up.

"Of course. Why didn't I think of that? How improbable!"

"That's the idea," Jyn nodded. "Yes. Go to Scarif. We've got supplies aboard this ship. And if they catch us…"

Her eyes seared, and Cassian seemed to understand what she meant. He licked his bottom lip and said, "No more running."

"Wherever we're going," K-2 said, "How about we go?"

Cassian buckled himself into his pilot's seat and started launch checks and procedures while K-2SO programmed the navigation. Jyn turned her attention to Bodhi. She knew he'd been heavily stunned by the blaster bolt, that his entire system was in shock right now. She pulled two Health stim injections from the Medikit and jabbed one into each of Bodhi's thighs. Even with the powerful medications in the injections, she knew it would be hours before he woke. She peeled back Bodhi's shirt and placed some monitor pads just below his collarbone. The monitor pads would keep track of his pulse and breathing and would beep loudly if there was an emergency with the vitals.

Jyn felt the stolen freighter rocket into hyperspace. She glanced up to see the blue whirring light through the viewport. Cassian unbuckled his harness and said to the droid beside him,

"Kay-Tu, stay and keep an eye on Bodhi. Come get me only if it's extremely urgent. Jyn and I will be in the bunk and galley."

"I'm not a nanny droid, you know," K-2 protested, but there was a sharp glint in Cassian's dark eyes as he glared.

"Kay-Tu. For once, please don't question me," Cassian said, his voice soft and almost dangerous. "You couldn't possibly understand -"

"Oh." K-2SO turned to look at Jyn. "That most unprogrammable thing, is it?"

Jyn nodded at him, and K-2 rose from his co-pilot's chair. He was so tall that his head nearly touched the ceiling, so he absolutely loomed over the crouching Jyn as he approached.

"Does he have monitor pads on?" K-2 asked, gesturing down to Bodhi. "Has he received a Health stim?"

"Two of them," Jyn nodded. "He should be fine."

"Then, by all means, Jyn Erso, go to the bunk and galley," K-2 said, seeming for once to understand that this was no time for sarcasm.

Jyn rose, looking back at Bodhi and hoping with all her might that he would indeed be fine. She followed Cassian around the freighter's rounded periphery until they walked through the narrow,sophisticated galley and reached the line of ten double bunks.

Suddenly Cassian whirled around and took Jyn's face in his hands, and it was only then that she realized there were actual tears in his eyes.

"If I had really lost you on Scarif, Jyn, it would have been a tragedy, but I would not have fully understood what I'd be losing. I have never felt as afraid as I did on Naboo, running through those streets and knowing that one blaster bolt might mean losing you forever."

Jyn shook her head at him, her throat tight as she whispered, "We are none of us immortal."

"Are we really sure about that? Are we really sure about anything at all?" His eyes finally boiled over, and one tear wormed its way down the cheek that was starting get scruffy again.

"No," Jyn told him. "We are not sure about anything at all."

She kissed him then, slowly at first and then more deeply. They started to meld into one another, their breaths synchronizing until it felt like they would both vanish without the kiss. Jyn felt herself being pushed gently backward until she was sitting on a bunk.

"Please, Jyn," Cassian murmured, urging her down onto her back. "Please let me feel you. I need it; I need you. Please…"

Jyn didn't answer. She just kicked off her boots and started shoving her leggings down. There was only the curve of the ship keeping them out of sight right now, but she couldn't bring herself to care. Every instant with Cassian felt like it might be the last.

"Do you realize," Jyn said breathlessly as Cassian yanked her leggings the rest of the way off, "That you have killed Orson Krennic twice?"

"I did realize that," Cassian nodded, his fingers fumbling to open his trousers. "Killing the same man on two different planets is more than a little disorienting."

Jyn gasped then, for Cassian had reached between them and was pulsing his fingers against her entrance.

She was dry, not at all ready for him, for there had been no play and her mind was somewhere else. She focused on Cassian's face, reaching up to brush her knuckles over the scruff that had grown back. He leaned to kiss her gently, and Jyn tried to feel every detail of it. Soon enough, Cassian's fingers were gliding easily. Jyn whispered his name against his lips, sighing when she felt him replace his fingers with his cock. Cassian lowered himself to his elbows, rocking against Jyn with a slow, steady pace.

It was soothing, despite the awkward circumstances. So very little was certain for Jyn right now. So very little had ever been certain. But she knew with every fiber of her being that she adored this man, that he adored her right back, and that was all she needed.

"I love you, Jyn," Cassian murmured, and Jyn nodded silently back. He knew she loved him. He would also know that she couldn't say it just now, when she was so overwhelmed by him.

She sank completely into the sensation of their bodies being joined, of the way his hips grinding on hers was sending her on a comfortable climb to paradise. She felt a bit of a jolt, but Jyn was too lost in the feel of Cassian inside her to really register what the jolt had meant. Cassian seemed to ignore it, too; he kissed Jyn and seemed tense, like he was just moments from his own quiet completion.

"Sorry to interrupt, but - oh, of all the things I absolutely never possessed a curiosity to see."

Jyn shrieked at the sound of K-2SO's voice. Cassian wrenched himself out of Jyn and snatched her leggings, tossing them over her hips to shield her body from view. Jyn's cheeks felt like they were on fire as K-2 informed them matter-of-factly,

"The freighter has been yanked out of hyperspace and all controls have been overridden. Someone has hijacked us."

Cassian cursed loudly and heaved himself off the bunk, tucking his member away unselfconsciously. He yanked on K-2's arm, and as he walked quickly back toward the cockpit, he called over his shoulder,

"Jyn, grab the largest weapon you can find once you get dressed."

* * *

"We're going to have to wake him up," Jyn said, studying the way Bodhi was still out cold. The stolen freighter was being dragged by an unseen tow line, pulled toward whatever ship had intercepted them. Jyn looked up at Cassian and said sharply, "There's an autoinjector in the medikit. It's adrenaline and neural stim. Get it for me, will you?"

"You don't think it'll be too much for his heart?" Cassian questioned, and Jyn rolled her eyes as she practically shouted,

"We have no time. We have no choice. We have to wake him up. Please, Cassian, get the injector."

Before Cassian could obey Jyn, K-2SO did. He crossed the ship's width in four long strides and got the medikit out of the cabinet in the wall. After a moment, he brought a small autoinjector back to Jyn. She popped off the safety cap and tossed it aside, and her hand shook a little as she pulled Bodhi's shirt aside. She gently pulled off the monitor pads on his chest, and then she brought the autoinjector to Bodhi's skin. She took a breath and steadied her hand, and then she jabbed the injector to trigger its needle. Jyn winced at the awful feel of the injector surging into Bodhi's chest, but a weak little smile crossed her face as Bodhi's eyelids flickered. Jyn pulled the injector away, holding it up for Cassian to take. He did, and Jyn said as gently as she could manage,

"Bodhi? Try and open your eyes. You were shot on Naboo. Bodhi? Wake up. Our ship has been hijacked. We need you to wake up."

Bodhi's eyes opened slowly, and after Jyn repeated the reality a few times, Bodhi rushed to sit up. Jyn shook her head.

"Slowly," she told him. "Your body's been through a shock. Unfortunately, we can't give you the proper time to heal. Cassian, have you got a weapon for him?"

Bodhi took a blaster pistol from Cassian and looked around. His voice was hoarse as he said, "I remember running down the street. Then nothing."

"Well, you'll remember this," said K-2SO, and when Jyn looked over to where the droid was standing, she saw a Dreadnought out the viewport. It was the same one they'd escaped after being taken from Scarif - the Snare . Their small ship was being dragged toward the waiting, gaping maw of the angry-looking Dreadnought. Jyn pulled herself to her feet, and she and Cassian helped Bodhi rise from the bunk. Cassian gave Jyn back the blaster carbine she'd set down before waking Bodhi. Jyn held the heavy carbine in one hand and reached for Cassian. She squeezed his hand and met his eyes, and she whispered softly,

"I love you."

He nodded, just as the stolen freighter was pulled through the open hangar door of the Dreadnought. Jyn felt queasy and dizzy, and she only vaguely heard K-2 as he said,

"I advise you all to set your weapons down. The odds of you surviving if you are armed are approximately 96,320 to one."

Jyn sighed. She knew K-2 was right. Cassian nodded and set down his own blaster carbine, and Bodhi put his pistol on the bunk. Jyn put her weapon beside Bodhi's. The three humans and K-2 made their way toward the loading door. The ship's controls had been completely overridden; the door would open whenever someone on the Dreadnought made it so.

But as they stood there, listening to the landing gear make contact with a metallic floor, Jyn felt like she was about to die all over again. An odd sense of peace washed over her at that thought. How many times could one person die?

The loading door opened with a hiss and a whirr, and as the ramp lowered, Jyn tipped her chin up defiantly. She was prepared to face whoever stood on the other side.

She was shocked, utterly and completely, when that person was a woman in an elaborate red gown - Leia Organa.

* * *

Confederation Dreadnought Snare

President's Quarters

Anakin paced anxiously around his office. He had never expected, after cutting the parade short and yanking Leia onto a lightweight military shuttle, that finding the fugitives would be so easy. Very fortunately for him, Orson Krennic and his men had found the stolen freighter just before the parade and had placed devices on it in case the fugitives decided to try and flee. That meant that, as their shuttle raced toward the Snare , Leia was able not only to track down the freighter, but to yank it from hyperspace, override its controls and instruct the crew of the Snare to reel it in.

None of that, though, had been the shocking part of all this. Naturally, the fugitives had been placed in individual soundproof cells under heavy guard, with their wrists and ankles shackled. One by one, they had been brought to Anakin for interrogation. His tactics had been very different from those used by Captain Krybus Restin. Anakin Skywalker had no need for interrogation droids. He was stronger in the Force than nearly any human who had ever lived. All he had to do was lock the fugitives into chairs and crack into their minds, and he could see everything.

What he saw terrified him.

"Papa." Leia came straight into Anakin's office without knocking. She had changed out of Padmé's old gown and into her military uniform. Anakin gestured vaguely toward the black leather chair on one side of his desk.

"Sit," he said simply. Leia did, sinking down and looking apprehensive. Anakin paced for another moment, his boots thudding a little on the polished floor of his office. Finally he sniffed and turned to Leia.

"Did you… find out anything useful?" she asked, and Anakin tried desperately to figure out a way to explain what had been inside the minds of the fugitives. He sat in his own chair, trying and failing to slow his heart rate. He drummed his cybernetic fingers on his desk and said to Leia,

"They are not from here."

Leia frowned. "Where is 'here,' Papa?"

"I don't know," Anakin admitted, knowing he must sound completely insane. When Leia's scowl deepened, Anakin told her, "I saw Orson Krennic in the minds of all three humans."

Leia looked surprised. "They know Krennic?"

"Not the same way we do," Anakin said, gulping heavily. "Krennic was wearing… the uniform was off. A white tunic and cape. Black gloves. And Jyn Erso, the girl. I could see her father, alive and well and working for…"

He trailed off then, trying to measure how much he said. Leia leaned forward and asked softly,

"Working for whom?"

"For the Empire ," Anakin spat. Leia's eyes narrowed.

"What Empire?"

" The Empire. I saw it over and over in their minds. There was no Confederation. No President Skywalker. There was… in the early years of the Confederation, Leia, there were efforts to construct a moon-sized weapon, a planet destroyer. I saw it in its entirety, in every single one of their minds."

"Papa," Leia whispered, shaking her head, "you're not making any sense."

"I saw you , Leia!" Anakin yelled, smacking his cybernetic fist down so hard that the layer of clari-crystalline atop his desk shattered. His daughter stared at him like he'd gone completely insane, and Anakin thought perhaps he had at last lost his mind. But he shut his eyes and steadied his breath, and he told Leia, "There was Empire. And there was a resistance to that Empire. Something called the Rebel Alliance."

"And where was all of this?" Leia asked, still sounding very confused. Anakin licked his lips and told Leia,

"In the mind of one of the men - Cassian Andor is his name - I saw a meeting of this Rebel Alliance. There were people standing around a table discussing a plot to find Jyn Erso and use her to get the plans for the Death Star - this planet-killing weapon."

Leia looked more befuddled than ever, and she opened her mouth to ask more questions. But before she could, Anakin barked sharply,

"You were standing at that table making plans."

Leia's jaw dropped and she shook her head. "Was I… old?"

"No," Anakin said honestly. "You looked exactly the same as you do now. Orson Krennic looked the same age as he does now. Jyn Erso, Cassian Andor, the pilot called Bodhi Rook… all of them looked the same."

Leia stood from her chair and crossed her arms over her chest. "This doesn't make sense. What are they… time travelers?"

Anakin glared up at her. "That doesn't seem likely, given that all the playing characters were of identical age to the version I see."

Leia threw her hands up. "Perhaps what you saw was an illusion. False memories planted in their minds."

Anakin shook his head. "I am better at this - at seeing what's really in someone's mind - than just about anyone, Leia. This is a skill I have honed well over the decades. What I saw were not dreams, or planted memories, or the past or the future. What I saw was reality . Do you understand?"

"No!" Leia cried, her face going white. "No, Papa. I don't understand. Do you ?"

Anakin shook his head, holding his good hand above his desk and focusing for a moment. Through the Force, the shards of shattered clari-crystalline began to knit themselves back together. Leia watched as the broken desk healed, and Anakin hoped she would finally realize that her father's abilities had not failed him. Only reason was failing him, and he could make no sense whatsoever of what he'd seen. For the first time in a very long while, he wanted to speak with Master Yoda - not to kill him, but to figure out what the blazes was happening.

"Are you going to kill them?" he heard Leia ask. Anakin set his hand back down and shook his head as he raised his eyes to his daughter.

"Not yet," he told her. "Not until I parse all of this out. Luke is on his way here, but he's three days away at hyperspeed."

Leia sighed and put her fingertips to her forehead. She shut her eyes and asked, "Will you let me talk to the girl? To Jyn Erso?"

"Why?" Anakin demanded. Leia looked a little exasperated, and she tipped her head as she said,

"She probably recognizes me, in some form or fashion. Maybe she even trusts me, if we were allies in her… her reality . I bet you I can get her to explain things, not just show them."

Anakin narrowed his eyes and considered Leia's suggestion. It was, he thought, worth a try, at the very least.

"You'll need to give us privacy, though," Leia insisted. "She won't say anything valuable if she knows she's being watched, or if she knows someone is listening."

Anakin gnawed his lip and finally nodded. "You'll take her into a meeting room. No cameras. No microphones. But you'll take two concealed weapons, and you'll come back to me when you're done. You'll tell me everything, or I'll get it from you the same way I got information from them?"

Leia looked quite hurt at that threat. "Don't you trust me, Papa?"

"Of course I do," Anakin lied. "I don't trust fugitives who appear to be from some sort of alternate reality. Go, Leia. Have troopers escort the girl from her cell to a meeting room, and have them wait outside. Meeting Room 3C-22 is the one I use when I'm not in here; there's no surveillance in it."

That much was true, and Leia knew as much. She hesitated for a moment and asked,

"Did something happen to Krennic? I couldn't get ahold of him once we left Theed."

"He's dead," Anakin said simply. Leia put her lips into a line and nodded, and then she turned to go.

* * *

Jyn lay on the hard bunk in her quiet cell, her knees tucked up to her chest as she wondered if Cassian was in the same pain she was in.

Anakin Skywalker, as it turned out, was a terrible person.

Jyn had been taken about twelve hours earlier into the same interrogation room where her friends had come to rescue her. This time, nobody came. This time, she'd been lashed with metal restraints to a chair and left in the silent space for around a half hour. At last, a handsome, tall man of around forty had come stalking around the chair and stood glaring down at Jyn. This was Anakin Skywalker, she knew. She'd recognized him from the float in the parade.

Anakin had said absolutely nothing at all. He'd just held out his left hand to Jyn, and then there had been a very unpleasant pulse in her head. She'd begun to feel a headache ripping through her skull, and then pain that seemed to shatter her bones and freeze the air in her lungs. Krybus Rastin's torture had been nothing at all compared with this.

She'd been able to feel memories being plucked from her head, as if Skywalker was searching for something specific. But it had become a swirling cloud of chaos. She'd seen thoughts about her father dying on Eadu, about Stormtroopers walking the streets of Jedha City. Skywalker had pulled out the meeting with the Rebel Alliance, where Mon Mothma and the others had talked of surrender, of the Empire's unstoppable strength. Jyn's mind had thudded and vibrated with the terrible end of it all, with the way she and Cassian had sent the plans for the Death Star off of Scarif, the way that Cassian had shot Orson Krennic, the way they'd clutched one another on the beach as the shockwave washed over them. Then the memories had bled straight into this place, and Skywalker had finally pulled out of Jyn's mind, seeming a bit breathless and frightened himself.

"What are you?" he had asked Jyn in a shaking voice, and all she could manage to choke out was,

"I am a rebel who died for the truth."

Skywalker had stormed out of the interrogation room, visibly shaking and seeming quite alarmed. Well, Jyn reckoned, she would be alarmed, too, in any other circumstance, to see such things in someone's head.

Now, as she lay in pain in her cell, she realized that Anakin Skywalker was remarkably strong in the Force. Chirrut had told them, during those nights camped on Scarif, that the Jedi and the Sith had been masters of incredible powers, including the ability to pull truth at will from the mind of someone who had information to give. Such an act was immoral and painful, Chirrut had said, and then the conversation had shifted. Here, in this cell, Jyn put her hands to her aching head and thought how very right Chirrut had been.

She wished more than anything right now that she could put her arms around Cassian and feel his around her. They were meant to be linked together, after all, and Jyn felt his absence so acutely now that it made the pain worse. She wrapped her arms around herself where she lay and tried desperately to pretend it was Cassian holding her. She shut her eyes and heard his whispering voice beside her in the hotel on Bespin. She breathed in the scent of him, listened to his heartbeat, thought about the adventures and stories he'd relayed. She could see his face when he was being serious, when he was happy, when they were making love. She could see and feel everything about Cassian… until she opened her eyes and felt nothing but the cold emptiness of the cell.

Suddenly there was a very loud grinding as the thick ferroconcrete door of Jyn's cell slid open. She flew to her feet, ignoring the lingering pain from when Anakin Skywalker had interrogated her. She peered curiously beyond the armored troopers who were aiming blasters at her to the pair of battle droids on either side of a small, uniformed woman. Leia Organa.

"Shackle her," said the mechanical voice of one trooper to another, but Leia shook her head and said calmly,

"That won't be necessary. I'm sure Jyn will walk with us just fine. Won't you, Jyn?"

Jyn nodded silently. Her wrists and ankles were still very sore from being bound to the chair in the interrogation room, and she was grateful for the respite. She had no idea where she was going with Leia, but she stepped out of the cell and let herself be surrounded by battle droids and troopers. Rather bizarrely, Leia walked only a half-step in front of Jyn and said quietly,

"We're going to a meeting room that has no surveillance. Of that, by the way, you have my word. I already swept it myself to check."

Jyn stayed silent. She followed Leia down long black corridors aboard the Dreadnought until they reached a large turbolift. Jyn stepped inside and gulped as one of the troopers pressed a button. The turbolift rocketed upward, but the journey took only a few seconds. Then Leia walked confidently through another maze of corridors and finally gestured to a door marked Meeting Room 3C-22 .

"You can wait out here," Leia said to the troopers and the battle droids as she pressed her hand to a scanner beside the door. It whirred open, and Leia gestured for Jyn to follow her inside. Jyn did, looking around at the sleek black-and-silver interior of what seemed like some kind of conference room. On the table, there was a pitcher of water and a platter of muja muffins.

"Sit, will you?" Leia asked, and when she saw the suspicious way Jyn was eyeing the food, she rolled her eyes and snatched a muja muffin. She bit into it and then poured herself a glass of water, which she swigged down. Leia said almost sharply, "We're not here so you can eat a poisoned muffin. Sit down, please, Jyn."

Jyn glanced over her shoulder to see that the door had shut. She finally pulled out an elegant black bantha leather chair and sat, watching as Leia sank into a chair opposite her. Leia folded her hands on the shiny table and pursed her lips.

"Let's cut right to the meat of things, shall we?" she said. "My father told me everything he saw in your mind. None of it makes any sense. Please explain what's going on."

Jyn sighed heavily and licked her bottom lip. "Even if I did explain, you wouldn't believe it."

Leia shrugged. "So I'm either very confused or I just don't believe you. Why don't you just tell me and we'll go from there. Why was I…" Leia paused and looked conflicted for a moment. She finally said, "My father saw, in the minds of the men with you, that I was part of some kind of rebel group."

"You still are, as far as I know," Jyn huffed. She decided then that she would just tell Leia everything. It was as Leia herself had said; the worst that could happen was that Jyn wasn't believed and was killed. Again. So she poured herself a glass of water, took a long drink, and looked Leia straight in her eyes. Then Jyn said,

"My name is Jyn Erso. I am the daughter of Lyra and Galen Erso. My father, Galen, was forced by his old school friend, Orson Krennic, to work on a project called the Death Star. This was for the Empire, you understand. My father was a scientist, and the work he was forced to do made the Death Star functional. I was taken from my parents as a child and raised in part by a militant who was a rebel against the Empire. My… friends… the reprogrammed Imperial droid K-2SO, Cassian and Bodhi, they're both rebels, too. And so is Leia Organa, a princess of Alderaan."

Leia's eyes went wide and then narrowed, and her back went very straight. Jyn plowed on, determined now to tell the whole story.

"The Rebel Alliance tried to use me to get to my father, to help obtain the plans for the Death Star before it could be used to kill millions of beings. Cassian and Bodhi and some other compatriots joined me in this mission. We wound up on the jungle planet Scarif, where we found the Death Star plans in an Imperial vault. Orson Krennic was there, at the Imperial base, but he was killed by Cassian. Bodhi was killed aboard a shuttle. K-2SO was destroyed on the base. To try and stop us from sending the plans to the Rebels, the Death Star was deployed. It was fired on Scarif. As the detonation bloomed in the distance, I stood on the beach and embraced Cassian Andor, and then the shockwave rushed over us. It killed us."

Leia blinked and cleared her throat. "I would say you're completely insane, except that my father insist what he saw in your mind is the truth."

"I'm not finished," Jyn said, and Leia shut her mouth and nodded. Jyn continued, "After the shockwave… after we died there, everything was gone. The Imperial base, the battle… everything was gone. We started finding our friends. All of us remembered dying, and then waking up. We found some supplies that had markings on them that had become irrelevant decades earlier in our lives. We used them. And then we were arrested by some battle droids and taken to this Dreadnought."

"And that's where everything starts to link back up?" Leia put her eyebrows up, and Jyn nodded. She hoped Leia wouldn't ask about Chirrut or Baze. They'd been listed as wanted, too, and now they weren't here. Jyn just wanted them to be safe on Dagobah. She reached for the crystal around her neck, the one her mother had given her on the last day they'd seen one another. Jyn nervously ran her fingers over the crystal, feeling compelled for some reason to do so. Leia's face showed almost no sign of emotion as she asked,

"Do you have any ideas, Jyn Erso, on why it is that things were so different before that explosion than they are now?"

Jyn snorted a little derisive laugh. "I'd phrase it the other way," she insisted. "I've been trying to figure why things are so different in this place than in the reality I and my friends know to be true. To that end… we do have a working theory."

"Which is?" Leia asked, and Jyn let out a shaking sigh.

"My father told me when I was younger about the Theory of Parallel Permutations."

Leia's eyes flashed then, and she shook her head. "My tutors informed me that such a theory is just a wild, speculative idea."

Jyn leaned forward and demanded, "But you know it? You've heard of it?"

Leia nodded and drummed her fingers on the dark table. "According to the Theory of Parallel Permutations, every action triggers an almost infinite number of possible outcomes. The theory holds that each outcome becomes its own reality, and that there are, in fact, innumerable and perhaps infinite realities. Those are the parallel permutations. And you think, Jyn Erso, that you somehow… moved? That you and your friends were in one permutation, and somehow you shifted? Is that it?"

Jyn shrugged. "We're not the sort of scientists my father was. We haven't got a better explanation than that, I'm afraid."

Leia chewed her lip and turned a little, staring out the transparisteel wall to gaze at the sea of stars beyond the Dreadnought. Her voice was quiet as she mused, "So many worlds, with so many inhabitants, making so many choices. Could there truly be that many realities at once?"

"Do you have a better answer as to why we all died and then woke up in a completely different set of circumstances?" Jyn demanded. Leia calmly shook her head.

"No," she admitted. "I don't."

She turned back to look across the table at Jyn. She lowered her voice and reminded Jyn,

"This room has no surveillance."

"So you told me," Jyn said cautiously, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms over her chest. Leia's face went pale as she blinked and asked,

"In… your permutation… why was I part of a rebellion? Why was I a princess of Alderaan? What was this rebellion fighting for?"

Jyn smiled sadly. "I have no idea about your early life, or why you joined the rebellion. I'm afraid I was rather dragged into it myself. I do know that the senator Bail Organa, who was part of the Rebel Alliance, raised you on Alderaan. But everyone knew that. I don't know why. I know that the Rebels were fighting against things just like the Death Star. The Empire snatched power from a democratic Republic, and then used military might to suppress any dissent or nonconformity."

"Sounds like my father and the government he's built," Leia said, rolling her eyes. Suddenly Jyn found herself gnawing on her lip, and she asked Leia carefully,

"You don't care for your father's politics?"

"I don't care for the way my life has turned into using ion cannons to defend military bases against the remaining Jedi. I don't care for the way I've had to command whole villages slaughtered because the inhabitants want to go back to the old way of doing things." Leia's eyes welled a tiny bit, and her voice crackled as she asked, "Was I good? In your world, did I do the right things?"

Jyn nodded. "From everything I heard, you were absolutely determined to bring people peace and freedom."

Leia pinched her lips and said, "You knew Orson Krennic."

"Unfortunately, yes, I did," Jyn said. "My father knew him far better. He was… he unapologetically built that planet-destroying weapon."

"The weapon that killed you on the beach on Scarif," Leia nodded. When Jyn just sighed, Leia scoffed bitterly and said, "I was supposed to marry him, you know. Orson Krennic. Your friend Cassian killed him - again, it would seem, but he would have died anyway. I'd only just convinced my father to release me from the engagement. I was supposed to marry Orson Krennic so that my father could ensure there was absolutely no threat to his power from ambitious people."

"How very dictatorial of your father," Jyn said tightly, and then she asked the question that was rattling around in her mind. "Do you suppose there is tyranny and rebellion in every single permutation?"

"Maybe," Leia shrugged. "Maybe not. It certainly seems like there is tyranny and rebellion in the existence you left behind as well as this one."

There was a silence then, a weighty silence that settled over the room like a heavy cloak. Leia stared down at the table for some time, and then she said very quietly,

"Grand Jedi Masters Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi are still alive, leading a small insurgency that lingers even this far into my father's reign."

"I don't know anything about them," Jyn said honestly. Then she decided to throw everything she had at this, and she said, "My friend Chirrut spoke reverently about Yoda."

Leia shut her eyes and looked like she was going to be sick. "My brother Luke and I have felt quite negatively about our father and his politics for a long while. We've been convinced for years, both of us, that our father killed our mother. Luke has been off on missions looking for Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi."

Jyn swallowed hard. This was so much to take in, and she had no idea what to do with any of the information. Leia raised her eyes to Jyn then and said in a very serious tone,

"Luke knows where they are. He's been feigning ignorance for almost a year, so that my father doesn't kill the remaining Jedi. Luke is coming here. When he does, I will speak with him and see if he will take us - you and your friends and your droid along with me - the place where Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi are hiding. And there, maybe a slightly altered Rebel Alliance can become a reality."

Jyn's mouth fell open. Surely she was hallucinating, or dreaming. This couldn't be real, could it? Of course, Jyn had asked herself that very question many times since the explosion on Scarif. So she shut her mouth, nodded once, and said firmly to Leia,

"If we're going to see Yoda, we need to stop off at Dagobah first."


	5. Chapter 5

Confederation Dreadnought Snare

President's Quarters

"Papa," Leia acknowledged as she stepped into Anakin's office. He put his eyebrows up expectantly and watched as his daughter sat opposite him.

"Well," he began, "did the girl tell you anything?"

Leia nodded and said very confidently, "I really think, Papa, that something has been done to their minds. They honestly believe everything you saw from them. Everything about that Empire, that weapon… they believe all of it. And they know absolutely nothing about reality. I have to wonder, particularly since they were found on a planet that was being scouted for Republic allies, whether perhaps…"

She trailed off then, glancing down at her hands. Anakin knew what she meant.

"Yes," he said in a clip, "Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi would both be capable of a memory alteration. But what's the tactical benefit?"

"They're trained," Leia asserted, raising her eyes back to Anakin. "The droid, the girl, both men. They know very, very well how to use blasters, how to fly starships. Do you think perhaps they were once part of our own military? Turned against us by the Jedi? What if it wasn't just the supplies that had been planted on Scarif? What if they were planted on Scarif?"

"Intended to be found," Anakin breathed. "Altered so they'd want to destroy my government. My accomplishments."

He felt a surge of anger then, and he snarled, "I promise that I will kill Obi-Wan Kenobi if it is the very last thing I do. I was with him in the Clone Wars. This is exactly the sort of sneak tactic he might try."

Leia sighed a bit and shrugged. "So what do we do with them?"

Anakin sucked on his teeth and tried to think of the right way to answer that question. He wanted nothing more in all the galaxy than to dump the body of Jyn Erso at Yoda's feet. He would do it as unceremoniously as possible. But first he needed Yoda.

"We'll keep them here in detention until Luke finds Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi," he said to Leia, "so that the bodies are fresh when we show the Jedi what happens to the assassins they create."

Leia's face was a bit strange then, and Anakin narrowed his eyes as he wondered whether he should force his way into her mind. But Leia made it difficult. She always had. And, anyway, she finally spoke in a way that explained her odd expression.

"Luke's been looking for Yoda and Kenobi for… quite some time."

"Well," Anakin shrugged, "I have no doubt that this Dreadnought is capable of providing the prisoners with very secure cells and the absolute minimum of food and water to survive. I'm going back to Naboo; I'm done losing sleep over this. Besides, I have a documentary screening to attend."

He rose from his chair, so Leia did, too. But she seemed a little confused, and she said,

"I thought Luke was coming here. Isn't he in hyperspace on his way?"

Anakin nodded. He sniffed a little, frustrated with how inefficient Luke had been in tracking down the Jedi. "You stay here and you explain all of this to your brother. You tell him to resupply and resume his mission, and to pick up the pace a bit. I bear him no sentimentality just because he's my son; if he can't get this figured out for me, I'll find someone who can."

"I understand, Papa," Leia nodded.

He brushed by her as he stalked out of the office. Just before he left, he paused and turned around. He studied Leia's resolute face, the brown eyes that looked so much like Padmé's. Anakin tried not to remember the way Padmé's own eyes had looked when she'd been lying in their bed, strangling and choking beneath Anakin's unwavering use of the Force. He tried not to remember the way Padmé's eyes had looked when they'd stared at the ceiling, all the life drained of them. Instead, Anakin stared at his daughter and kept his voice steady as he said,

"It was a mistake to try and marry you off to Orson Krennic."

Leia smirked. "Lucky for me, then, that he's no longer available to marry. I'm sorry, Papa, for the way I… the way I disrespected you about it all on Naboo."

Anakin nodded and pursed his lips. Luke was frustrating him these days, but Leia had never, ever been a real disappointment. He did not hesitate one bit as he told her,

"Make arrangements for indefinite detention of the prisoners, Leia. I leave the ship in your control. Goodbye."

"Goodbye, Papa," she heard him say from behind him. Anakin walked with a purpose then, ignoring the deferential nods as he made his way through the Dreadnought's corridors to the hangar. He and Leia had come here on the first ship they could snatch out of Theed, but the Confederation President would be going back in a speeder. Even after all these years, Anakin did love to fly.

* * *

Confederation Dreadnought Snare

Detention Facility

Jyn shut her eyes and wondered if maybe Chirrut had been onto something with his repetitive chants and meditation. She folded her legs up on her bunk and whispered carefully,

"I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me. I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me. I am one with the Force, and -"

Her nascent attempt to relax was abruptly interrupted as the heavy ferroconcrete door of her cell scraped open. Jyn leapt from the bunk and waited to see who was on the other side of the door. It was Leia, she could see, and far more surprisingly, behind her stood Cassian Andor. He peered into Jyn's cell and actually smiled. Leia gestured from outside the cell and said confidently,

"Come with us."

Jyn hesitated, an ominous feeling coming over her, but Cassian said gently, "It's all right, Jyn."

Jyn finally took the few steps out of her cell and looked around. The other cells were closed, and so she asked in a shaking voice,

"Where's Bodhi? Where's K-2?"

"They're already comfortably settled in their quarters," said Leia. When Jyn frowned in confusion, looking around for the troopers and battle droids she figured must be lingering somewhere, Leia said, "My brother Luke will be here in a few days. My father left three hours ago to go back to Naboo. The Snare is under my command. I've turned off all surveillance in this sector."

Jyn marvelled, feeling her eyes well a little. She shook her head and demanded, "Why are you helping us?"

Leia smiled crookedly. "I wish it was as altruistic as that. I can't live this life anymore, this life under my father. If there's a reality where I was fighting against a life like this, then I want to feel it here, too. Luke will feel the same way; I know it."

Jyn glanced to Cassian, who shrugged and said, "We have to trust her, Jyn. We don't have any better options."

Leia nodded and said, "I understand your reticence. But my own personal BC-714 transport has already had its tracking system destroyed. As soon as Luke arrives, we can all leave on the transport and go to wherever Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi are. I hope you understand why I've put K-2SO and Bodhi Rook in quarters on the opposite side of the Dreadnought from where I'm putting you two."

"Arouse less suspicion," Jyn nodded. But she said firmly, "They'll come with us when we leave."

"Of course they will," Leia said. She glanced behind Jyn into the barren cell and said, "Now, I'm sure you wouldn't mind staying somewhere a bit more comfortable."

An hour later, Jyn and Cassian were settled into a small suite of rooms in a private corridor off of the officers' sector. Jyn stared out the rectangular viewport on the wall and murmured,

"I can't help but feel awfully uneasy about all of this."

She felt Cassian's arms on her shoulders, and he whispered, "Jyn. We died on a beach. Now we're alive on a ship. What is the absolute worst thing that could happen?"

Jyn smirked. He was right, of course. Everything they did now had virtually no stakes. It was as Chirrut had said all the way back on Scarif. Everything now was a bonus.

"Cassian," Jyn whispered, "I'm very glad that we stayed on that beach even after we died, or else I never would have been able to fall in love with you."

He didn't answer her. He just turned her around at her waist and pressed her gently against the viewport. He took her face in his hands and kissed her, so gently that all Jyn could do was sigh. She was acutely aware of how dirty she was after the escape from Naboo and subsequent lack of bathing, so she whispered against Cassian's lips,

"I think I'll go take a shower."

He scoffed quietly and said, "Wait until you see that thing. Seems like an awful waste of water on a ship, but…"

Jyn frowned in confusion and squirmed out from under his arms. She giggled a little when she pushed open the fresher door. It was indeed ludicrous. Whoever this suite had been intended for was apparently a great lover of bathing. Jyn stepped into the fresher and studied the shower.

It was enormous, first of all, and anything but automatic. It had a Corulag bamboo floor and ceiling, and there was more smoothed bamboo on the seat of the little chair against one slick black wall. There was a rectangular panel on the ceiling that looked like it would produce a rain-like fall of water, and there was a handheld unit on the wall. Jyn could see that cleaning gels had been put into three mounted dispensers. She turned to Cassian and laughed.

"You know," he said, glancing down at himself, "I feel pretty dirty, too."

Jyn tipped her head. "Oh, you do, do you?"

Cassian nodded, looking a little more serious. "Can I come in there with you, Jyn?"

She smiled. "Of course you can."

She started shamelessly stripping off her clothes, crumpling one piece after another up in her arms. Once she was naked, she looked at Cassian and held out a hand.

"Give me everything," she instructed him. "There's a sonic washer in a closet out there, and I think we would probably both prefer to put clean clothes on after a shower, hm?"

Cassian's cheeks flushed, but he handed Jyn the clothes he'd been wearing since Bespin. She walked out of the fresher and to the closet in question, shoving the clothes into the sonic washer and programming it for a quick, thorough cycle. She heard the shower start inside the fresher, and she smiled a bit to herself. If she and Cassian were going to be held hostage with an uncertain future, then they could at least have a bit of fun with whatever time they had left.

Jyn laughed harder than she could remember doing then, for when she walked into the fresher, Cassian had found a button that played music inside the shower. He began to dance, to sway inside the glass walls as he beckoned for Jyn. She giggled and walked toward him, shaking her head as she opened the shower door.

"We are here to get clean, Cassian, not to dance," she scolded him playfully, but Cassian put his hands on her waist and pulled her under the stream of water. The music was slow and soulful with just enough beat for Cassian to rock Jyn a little.

"Why do you hate dancing so much?" he demanded, and Jyn shrugged as she laced her arms up around his shoulders.

"I suppose I never had a good enough dancing partner to enjoy it," she said. Cassian leaned down and kissed her gently, and Jyn felt her hair plaster itself to her head as the water soaked it through. She took her hands from Cassian and stepped over to the mounted dispensers. She held her hand under the one marked smoothing hair cleanser, and the dispenser released a little spurt of purple gel. Jyn started rubbing it into her hair, relishing the feel of her own fingers on her dirty scalp. Cassian chuckled a little as Jyn lathered up her hair, and she stuck her tongue out at him.

"You shouldn't make fun of me just because I'm covered in bubbles," she said. Cassian put his hands on his hips and smirked, and it was only then that Jyn realized just how attractive he was when there was water running down his body. She paused with her hands in her frothed-up hair and just stared for a moment.

"See something you like?" Cassian teased, and Jyn just nodded. She studied the planes of his lean chest and abdomen, the way his half-hard cock stood out a bit, the way the water ran in rivulets down his sinewy arms. She shut her eyes for a moment and moved to stand beneath the water. As she did, Cassian made his way to the dispensers and got hair cleanser for himself, which he quickly scrubbed into his hair and rinsed using the handheld unit from the wall. Jyn stood beneath the hot water, unabashedly feeling the voyeur as she watched Cassian wash the rest of his body with the exfoliating cleanser from another dispenser. By the time he was done, she felt very wet indeed between her legs, and not from the shower.

"All clean," Cassian said, raising one eyebrow. "Your turn."

He held his hand beneath the dispenser again, and he used his free hand to pull Jyn out of the water's stream. Then his hands were everywhere, scrubbing the dirt from her skin with firm circles as he massaged the cleanser onto her skin. Her shoulders, her back, her breasts… his touch was everywhere. Jyn felt dizzy, wondering if perhaps the hot water and steam were too much. But when Cassian's mouth crashed against hers, she knew the problem wasn't the water. She reached desperately for something to hold onto, convinced her knees were going to give out from beneath her. She finally seized Cassian's arms and kissed him back with all that she had. When she felt his fingers sneak between them and ghost over her nub, she groaned against his mouth. He was hard now, so hard that his cock jabbed at Jyn's stomach, and she tore her mouth from him as she mumbled,

"Chair. The… you sit on it."

"Is that what you do with a chair?" Cassian teased, but he backed himself up and sank down onto the bamboo stool against the wall. Jyn studied its block base, determining that would hold both of their weight, and as she stood before Cassian, she said firmly,

"I love you. No matter what happens, whether we make it off this ship or ever see Baze and Chirrut again, whether we're brutally killed and that's the end… it doesn't matter. I love you."

Cassian's dark eyes glittered, and he nodded. "Every moment I've been given with you so far is a gift, Jyn."

She was glad, all of a sudden, for the way the shower's water drizzled down her cheeks. It would help mask the tears she could no longer stem from leaving her eyes. Jyn straddled Cassian, trying not to move awkwardly as she did. She felt his hands on her backside as she sank down, and he hissed as he filled her. Jyn threw her arms around him and buried her face in the crook of his neck as she rocked her hips.

Surely, she thought, there was a finite amount of water aboard the Snare . And surely they were using far more than their fair share right now. But she couldn't bring herself to care. It felt magnificent, the way that Cassian throbbed a bit within her as she swayed back and forth. It was gentle and slow and easy, and yet she began to tense up from the feel of it. She kissed Cassian's wet shoulder, his warm neck, and she put her lips to his ear to whisper,

"Turns out I never lived until I died."

Cassian grunted a bit, yanking Jyn more tightly against him by her backside. Jyn felt a slight detonation, a peaceful little climax as their wet bodies rubbed together just so. A few moments later, Cassian pushed his hips up from where he sat, and she knew he was finishing inside of her. She felt his shaking hands slide up her back, and his breath shook audibly. Then his body went slack, his tight muscles relaxing. Jyn didn't climb off of him; she sat there and tried to soak in every scrap of what he was. Finally, when she'd become sore and cold, she heaved herself off of his lap. He stood and walked with her beneath the shower's rainfall, and both rinsed off the evidence of what they'd done. Cassian took Jyn's face in her hands and kissed her one more time before he asked,

"You think our clothes are clean?"

"Mm-hmm," Jyn nodded. "You think Leia will let us eat somehow?"

"Probably." Cassian met Jyn's eyes and looked more serious then. "I think that whatever happens next will be quite an adventure, Jyn Erso. And I'm glad I get to go on that adventure with you. Is that a silly thing to say?"

"No." Jyn shook her head and said honestly, "It's not silly. Not at all. Whatever happens to us, I'll be with my very favorite person. And there's nothing silly about that."

* * *

Meeting Room 3C-22

Confederation Dreadnought Snare

Luke Skywalker, as it turned out, was little more than a boy. In fact, when Leia had referred to him as her brother, she had failed to specify that the two were twins. Luke was at least several years younger than either Bodhi or Cassian, and seemed right around Jyn's age. He was far shorter than his father, though the two dressed alike. He did not, Jyn thought, cut a terribly formidable figure. But as they all sat gathered around a conference table aboard the Snare , Jyn thought that intimidation factor didn't matter now nearly as much as genuine intent.

Prior to this meeting, Leia had debriefed Luke on nearly everything. She'd explained the parallel timelines, the differences between the Empire and the Confederation, and why it was that she believed this motley crew might actually help defy Anakin Skywalker. But Luke still had a great many questions to ask, it seemed.

"In your… in your permutation ," he said, "what do people know about the Force? About the Jedi?"

Jyn looked and Cassian and hesitated. Cassian licked his bottom lip and said carefully, "Chirrut Imwe, our friend, and a small number of others worship the idea of the Force. They worship the legends of the Jedi. But many people know almost nothing. Hardly anyone would be able to explain the Force in any detail, or describe what the real purpose of the Jedi was."

"Was," Luke repeated, flicking his eyes around the table. "So the Jedi are all gone in your existence?"

"You could say that," K-2SO quipped. "There are legends about that part, too, if you'd like to hear them."

"Your droid has quite an attitude," Leia said, raising her eyebrows. "Typical of all Imperial Security Droids?"

"Oh, no. There's nothing typical about me," K-2 insisted. Luke cut back in,

"What exactly happened to the Jedi?"

Jyn met Luke's blue eyes and said in the gentlest voice she could manage, "If Chirrut's right - and he would be, I think - the Jedi were destroyed at the end of the Clone Wars, when the Empire was founded. None of the Jedi survived the purge. My mother knew quite a lot about the Force, I think. Before she died, she told me to trust in it, and she gave me this."

She pulled out the necklace her mother had given her, with its clear and odd-shaped crystal on a rough-hewn chain. Luke's blue eyes widened as he looked at the necklace, and he murmured in awe,

"I thought I was crazy, feeling a kyber in this room. But… there it is."

Jyn gulped and wrapped her hand around the crystal. She would never let anyone take it; her mother had gifted it to her on their last day together.

Luke Skywalker blinked a few times and turned his eyes to his sister. "Have we considered the possibility that when the weapon - the Death Star - detonated, its power as channeled and redirected by that kyber crystal."

Leia's eyebrows went up, and she shook her head. "No. I don't think we'd considered that."

Jyn turned to Cassian, tightening her fingers around her necklace. He and Bodhi looked at each other, and Bodhi demanded of Luke,

"You think Jyn's necklace threw us sideways? Do you think it could take us back?"

"I really don't know," Luke shrugged. "Yoda will know, or he'll have a better idea."

"Yoda," said K-2SO. "This sage and elusive Jedi master of whom everyone seems to be thinking. As a particularly tall being, I should like to meet this Yoda. It seems probable that he is as imposing as me."

Luke snorted and drummed his fingers on the table. "He's half my height, green, and speaks in a way that barely makes sense. Still want to meet him?"

K-2 paused for a moment, then said, "Sometimes the smallest creatures are the most imposing, you know."

Jyn sighed, cutting to the meat of why they'd all met. "So. Luke Skywalker. Your sister tells us that the both of you find your father's rule dictatorial and wish to rebel. But why should we trust you?"

"What do you have to lose? Your lives?" Luke shook his head. "From what I understand, you all already died. The question is… why should wetrust you ?"

"Because," Cassian said quietly, "we are rebels in any permutation. We see wickedness - here, there, upside-down and inside-out - and we reject it. At least we're consistent."

Jyn smirked a little at that, and she watched as Luke Skywalker's lips curled up a bit. "Good enough for me. Now. If we take Leia's BC-714 transport, there will be more than enough space. We'll need it; we've got a long journey."

"Where are we going?" Jyn asked, and Luke sniffed lightly and lowered his eyes.

"Selvaris," he said, "in Wild Space."

"Selvaris," K-2SO repeated tightly. "Sparsely populated. Tropical. Twenty-four days' journey even with the exceptionally fast hyperdrive of the BC-714 transport. I can see no logical reason to go to such a far-flung place."

"That's where Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi are hiding," Luke informed them all, "along with about twenty-five other Jedi. They're living in an old temple that was abandoned and has been rebuilt. It is, at this point, essentially the headquarters for what remains of the Republican resistance."

Everyone at the table glanced at the others. Bodhi seemed to be trying to figure out just how far away a planet must be to take such a long time to reach. Cassian was still carefully studying Luke and Leia, apparently trying to get a handle on their motives. And K-2SO was saying,

"Well, with the obvious stop-off on Dagobah to fetch Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus, we will need to add six days to the journey's length. So, we won't reach Selvaris for a month. What am I supposed to do on a tiny ship for a month? I'll be so, so bored, and I don't cope well with boredom."

"Lucky for you, the BC-714 has a holotheatre, a library, a game room, and more," Leia said, rolling her eyes a bit. "You've never been more comfortable. Promise. Now… the important thing for all of us to keep in mind is this. If my father catches us, he will kill us. Luke and I are very certain that our mother did not die a natural death. We said goodnight to her, and in the morning she was gone, after weeks of angering our father."

"He wouldn't hesitate with his own children," Luke agreed, "much less with a ragtag group of strangers who frighten him with their thoughts."

"Well," Jyn said, sitting up straighter, "we'll just have to ensure all trackers are utterly destroyed and that the ship is stocked for the long haul. How quickly can we get off this Dreadnought?"

Leia chewed her lip and seemed to be thinking hard. "Six hours," she said. "I can have the Snare programmed on auto so that it can be fully abandoned. The transport will be loaded up by simple service droids. Bodhi Rook and K-2SO and I will work on disabling the tracking system… and then we'll go."

"In the meantime," Cassian said firmly, "I need a very secure subspace transceiver. Chirrut and Baze still have a communications device. We have a code… they'll know I mean. They'll know that someone's coming for them."

"Chirrut didn't want to leave Dagobah the last time we attempted a rescue," K-2 said in a snide tone. "What makes you think he'll leave now?"

"Because," Cassian said, folding his arms over his chest, "the code is very simple, and Chirrut knows that if I send it, it means we're coming to get him and taking him to the remaining Jedi?"

"What's the code?" Jyn asked, and Cassian's eyes darkened a little as he said,

"Kyber."

* * *

BC-714 Transport Optimist

Leia's transport, a ship called the Optimist , was even more luxurious than she'd described it to be. Once the ship entered hyperspace toward Dagobah, everyone gathered in the ornate dining space, outfitted with numerous round tables and at least a dozen serving droids.

"Right," Leia said, standing at the front of the room, "I think it would be best if we treated ourselves as the crew of an actual ship."

"That seems wise," K-2 said, "seeing as we are on an actual ship in need of a crew."

Leia glared at the droid a bit, but Jyn couldn't help smiling. At the table beside her, Luke and Bodhi paid close attention to Leia's impassioned and confident directions.

"This ship is designed for luxury, so much of what happens onboard is automated or handled by droids. But we'll each need to assume some duties, since we're lacking in a traditional crew. The others - Chirrut and Baze - will have jobs when they come aboard at Dagobah. I'll have them be my lieutenants in case of emergency."

"You're to be the leader in case of emergency, then?" Cassian challenged, and Leia put her lips in a line as she said,

"I'm sure you're all very brave, and very experienced… in your own reality. Here, under the regime of my father, I am a military commander. I know my father's forces inside and out."

"She has a point, Cassian," Jyn said in an almost soothing voice. "Think about it. Who knew the Empire better than anybody else?"

Cassian's eyes went to Bodhi Rook, to the Imperial pilot who had defected, and he nodded. He looked back up to Leia and demanded, "What's my job, Commander?"

"You and Jyn are in charge of coordinating food and beverage services and housekeeping routines with the droids. I've had to simplify their programming to ensure they aren't tracked, so you may need to give them quite a bit of guidance."

Cassian scowled, but Jyn nodded firmly and said, "Aye-aye. We'll keep those pesky, underprogrammed droids in check."

"That really seems like a better fit for me," K-2SO insisted. He looked at Leia and said, "Can I have their job? I want to be the lord of the droids."

"No." Leia shook her head. When K-2 made a scandalized pseudo-gasping noise, Leia said, "Your job is important, Kay-Tu. Except for when you're recharging, you need to be keeping a close eye on the communications, tracking, and navigation systems. We need to be very certain at all times that we aren't being tailed, that we aren't moments away from being yanked out of hyperspace."

"You mean like you did to us?" K-2 snapped, and Leia sighed.

"Like I did to you," she nodded. "Bodhi Rook, I'd like you to take the position of lead pilot, with Luke as your co-pilot. You'll have to alternate sleeping schedules. We need one of you completely rested in case we suddenly find ourselves in a dogfight. Now… I'm sure everyone saw the holotheatre, the library, the gaming room, the saunas, the lounge, and the fitness center. As you can tell, this ship was designed with luxury in mind. We aren't on vacation, but we should be pretty comfortable. There are plenty of staterooms for everyone to sleep independently, with your own freshers. "

K-2SO made a strange little laughing sound and said, "Ohhh… I don't think Baze and Chirrut will want their own staterooms. They wanted a whole planet, all to themselves, together . And look at these two over here."

He turned his mechanical face to Jyn and Cassian, and Jyn felt her cheeks go red hot. K-2 looked back up and Leia and tipped his head.

"Don't make them sleep separately, Commander; they'll just be sneaking into one another's staterooms at night, which seems awfully immature."

"Kay-Tu," Cassian said in a warning tone. Bodhi disguised a chuckle by clearing his throat, and Luke laughed so hard he seemed to be struggling to stay quiet. Leia quirked up half her mouth and said,

"Naturally, anyone is free to sleep by themselves, or with one other person, or with three other people. It makes no difference to me. Let's all relax a little, shall we? We'll check in again here tomorrow, same time, to prepare for arrival on Dagobah."

Leia walked matter-of-factly from the room, trailed by K-2, who was drilling her about Confederation military protocols. Bodhi and Luke rose from their seats and started speaking in low tones about a game of Dejarik. Once it was just Cassian and Jyn in the expansive dining room, Jyn sighed and asked him,

"Is it just me, or is all of this incredibly strange?"

Cassian clicked his tongue. "I think I've resolved myself to the fact that whatever I experience from now until I cease to exist will be incredibly strange."

Jyn opened her mouth to speak, but before she could, a partially deprogrammed serving droid wheeled up. Its voice was empty and monotone as it asked,

"May I get you two beverages or snacks?"

Jyn raised her eyebrows. "Erm… can you make a muja juice smoothie?"

The droid didn't answer for a moment, and Jyn grinned at Cassian as they both realized how much programming had been removed from the droids to avoid having them tracked. Cassian said in a slow, deliberate voice,

"One part blue yogurt. One part muja juice. One part whole muja berries. One part Vashkan honey. Do you need me to repeat that?"

"No, thank you," said the droid's monotone voice. "A muja smoothie. Equal parts blue yogurt, muja juice, muja berries, and Vashkan honey. How many may I make for you?"

"Two of them, please," Cassian said. The droid beeped as if to register the order, and its faceless body wheeled away. Jyn laughed a little and told Cassian,

"You'd better hope we know a lot of recipes between us. Otherwise everyone's going to go hungry or eat the same thing over and over again."

"No matter what, it'll still be better than being dead. And better than ration bars in our little camp on Scarif," Cassian said, and Jyn quickly corrected him,

"Village. It wasn't a camp; it was a village."

Cassian smiled fondly and nodded. "Yes. A village. And, you know… now that I think of it, I'm not sure how even a luxury transport could top that little village, where it rained every evening and I lay beside Jyn Erso on the sand. That was a wonderful place."

"For so brief a time," Jyn said rather sadly, looking around the slick dining room. "Why does nothing last?"

She felt Cassian wrap his fingers around hers atop the table, and it was so comforting that Jyn shut her eyes for a moment. When Cassian spoke, he sounded far more gentle than he'd done these last few days.

"Most things don't last," he admitted. "But… Jyn. You and I. Whatever we are… I want us to last as long as we possibly can. Is that all right with you?"

Jyn nodded, knowing that if she looked at him right now, her courageous disguise would break down. She gulped and murmured back at him,

"Oh, yes. I quite like that idea… the idea of you and I going on together for a great long while. Would you like to go claim the best stateroom of them all? We'll have to hurry and find the most comfortable one before Kay-Tu does."

* * *

"Oh, here come the snacks. Hooray. I do so love snacks."

Jyn turned over her shoulder to smirk at K-2SO's jibe, and she informed him,

"Cassian and I worked very hard to make sure these serving droids understand again what snacks actually are."

"Congratulations," K-2 said dryly, "but I'm still certain I would have done a better job of it."

As it happened, K-2 was probably right about that. The serving droids moved through the holotheater, handing out little trays with beverage pouches to everyone who had gathered to watch One Night on Endor. Luke Skywalker made a sound of disgust from his seat toward the front and said,

"Ugh. Beetle chips?"

Jyn scowled as the serving droid passed her her own tray. She glanced to Cassian and noted, "They were supposed to bring moss chips."

"With honey glaze," Cassian nodded, glaring at K-2 as the larger droid made an electronic sound of amusement. Cassian said sharply to the serving droids, "You've made a mistake. We ordered moss chips. Moss. These are the wrong chips. No insects."

Leia giggled a bit from where she sat, and Bodhi Rook popped a beetle chip into his mouth happily and said, "Not a problem for me. I've always loved beetle chips."

"We will be back as soon as possible with moss chips," said the lead serving droid, and from behind Jyn, K-2SO muttered,

"Oh, they just ooze intelligence, don't they? I'm sure they couldn't possibly muck it up again. Hm."

"Kay-Tu, will you please reach up behind you and start the vid?" Leia asked, and K-2 turned from the back row to push the large red button on the wall. Suddenly the lights in the ship's holotheater went dark, and the holoprojector began to glow.

They were less than a day from Dagobah now, and after the holovid and a brief sleep, they'd pull out of hyperspace and land on the wet jungle planet. Jyn felt Cassian wrap his fingers around hers, and she felt a profound sense of peace wash over her. She focused on the holovid, on its inane but entertaining plot in which two strangers' ships crashed on the Forest Moon of Endor. The two found one another and began kissing frantically in the rain, and from behind Jyn, K-2 said rather loudly,

"They have only just met one another. This is implausible."

"Hush, Kay-Tu," Cassian scolded him. Bodhi turned away the droid that had come with moss chips; he appeared to still be enjoying the beetle chips. But Jyn gladly accepted the replacement snack, and as the film progressed into something steamier, she grinned and chomped on her food.

"If there are children present, cover their eyes!" Leia crowed as the man and woman on the screen started stripping their clothes off. The others laughed, but K-2SO said sourly,

"There are no children present. I wanted to watch the film about the droids who rebel against the humans."

"You don't say." Jyn rolled her eyes at him and popped another moss chip into her mouth. The holovid carried on through erotic scenes and romantic scenes and a great heroic rescue, and it culminated with an overwrought wedding sequence as a happy ending. When the vid finished playing, the lights in the theater came up, and Leia stood from her seat.

"Well," she said, looking at her brother and the other four, "that was fun. But we all need to be rested and ready. We leave hyperspace in thirteen hours. Please make sure you've slept and that you have everything ready… just in case."

"The likelihood of us being intercepted in the immediate vicinity of Dagobah is eight hundred and six to one," said K-2SO, and Luke Skywalker chuckled as he said,

"For once, a droid giving odds I actually like."

Jyn looked at Cassian, studying the way his beard and mustache had grown back, the way his dark eyes seemed alive and very tired at the same time. He gave her a little smile and said,

"I'll meet you in the stateroom soon. I'm going to go work a bit more on these service droids."

"All right." Jyn nodded and stood from her own chair. As she walked down the holotheater steps, Leia moved briskly toward her and asked,

"Care to join me for a cup of Gatalentan tea? Always helps me calm down and sleep."

"That sounds nice," Jyn nodded. The two women made their way to the Optimist 's elegant lounge, a space of comfortable white furniture, warm wood trim, and soothing colored lighting. Somehow, the service droids managed to bring proper Gatalentan tea, and as Jyn sat on a chaise sipping hers, she heard Leia say,

"Can I ask you something, Jyn Erso?"

Jyn smiled into her cup of tea. "How did I know this was a meeting and not a tea party?"

Leia was quiet for a moment, and then she asked in a gentle tone, "Did you love him in your other reality?"

Jyn raised her eyes. Cassian. Of course, Leia meant Cassian. Jyn shook her head and tightened her hands around her mug of tea. "No. I didn't… I never really got the chance to properly fall in love with him there. We died together, wrapped up in one another's arms, when the Death Star fired on Scarif. But we weren't in love yet. We hadn't had time."

Leia blinked a few times and looked almost nervous as she smoothed the elegant braided bun atop her head. "Do you know if I was… was I married? In your reality?"

Jyn smiled and shrugged. "I don't think so," she said honestly, "but I'd never met you in person. You, like me, seemed to be a rather recent addition to the Rebel Alliance. You certainly weren't married to Orson Krennic."

"Well. I'll always be grateful to Cassian for what happened to Krennic on Naboo," Leia said quietly, sipping from her own mug. Jyn scoffed and nodded.

"Krennic is the reason my father died in front of me. And, where I'm from, Cassian killed Krennic. So, perhaps that's meant to be. No matter what, if Cassian Andor and Orson Krennic cross paths…"

"Krennic dies." Leia laughed darkly and then asked, "Do you think certain things are inevitable? I mean… do you think maybe there are certain truths, certain things that are real no matter what parallel you're in?"

"Hoo… wow." Jyn shook her head and suddenly wished her scientist father was still alive to discuss something like this. She raised her eyebrows and took a long drink of her soothing tea. She finally said, "I don't know, if I'm honest. It would be pleasant to think that perhaps I'm in love with Cassian Andor in a great many permutations. But we can never go back to where we came from, you know? We died there. So I can never find out whether he and I were meant to love each other. My father is dead here and there. So's Krennic. There's a tyrannical government in both. It does seem… it seems like details change, but the scaffold stays the same. I don't know."

She wasn't making sense to herself, so she figured she was making no sense at all to Leia. But the other woman sipped thoughtfully at her tea and said,

"I hope I'm a rebel against dictatorships in every single permutation."

Jyn didn't have the heart to remind Leia that, to the best of Jyn's knowledge, she and her friends hadn't even been born in this particular permutation. She just gave Leia a little smile and took the last sip of her tea.

"Do you think your friends will come with us?" Leia asked meaningfully then. "The ones that didn't want to leave Dagobah the last time you tried to pick them up?"

"They'll come," Jyn nodded confidently. She'd been there when Cassian had sent the coded message. Kyber . Now she fingered the crystal pendant around her neck and said firmly, "If Chirrut gets to meet Yoda, he'll certainly come. And Baze… well, Baze wouldn't leave Chirrut alone on Dagobah. He's not there on vacation. He'll come."

"My brother says that, before we left the Snare , he sent a holo message all the way to Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi. He got a response just minutes before we went into hyperspace," Leia said. Jyn raised her eyebrows.

"And?"

"Yoda told him that the prophecy is being fulfilled." Leia let out a shaky sigh and clarified, "Yoda claims he had a vision, one also experienced by Obi-Wan Kenobi. Blurry, unclear, very little detail. But it's a sort of prophecy, Luke says, and Yoda has been relying on it for years. It's been his last hope in maintaining a resistance against my father's government."

"What's the prophecy?" Jyn asked, and Leia's face was hard as stone as she recited,

" The towering droid. Four men - the lover, the apostate, the visionary, and the assassin. The woman with kyber near her heart. Ghosts and saviors. "

"Saviors?" Jyn repeated, nearly dropping her empty mug on the wooden floor. She shook her head and insisted, "We're just lost."

"Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi have been waiting for years for you, apparently," Leia said, her face going pale. Her eyes went to Jyn's crystal, and Jyn touched it on instinct as she remembered what her mother had told her. Trust the Force .

"How are we meant to be saviors?" Jyn demanded, and Leia tipped her head.

"My father's military subjugates people all over the galaxy. I've seen it first hand; I've participated in it. Maybe you did die in your own reality, and there's nothing that can be done for that. But here, in this permutation, Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi seem to think your presence is the key to restoring the Republic and freeing billions from the yoke of tyranny."

Jyn's mouth fell open. "Well, that's rather a large revelation to throw at me, don't you think? Why haven't you told us this yet, if you've known about this prophecy?"

Leia sighed and admitted, "I just wasn't... sure. I wasn't sure you were the right ones. It's been years since I've heard the prophecy from Luke. And I wasn't sure you'd believe me, or how to tell you, or what the point would be in telling you. I'm telling you , Jyn, because I can plainly see that Cassian Andor still does not trust me. If you want to tell him, go ahead. Luke is going to tell Bodhi and K-2SO, and when we pick up your friends on Dagobah, you can decide what the best way to tell them is."

Jyn set her empty mug down and blinked. "Thank you for the tea time," she said in a rather flat voice, still unable to believe she and the others could ever be the fulfillment of some kind of prophecy. She rose from her chaise and straightened the hem of her tunic. "I'm going to bed. To rest, so that I'm ready to land on Dagobah. I'll tell Cassian what you told me. I'll try and get all the details right."

Leia licked her lips and nodded. She repeated the prophecy, as if to burn it into Jyn's memory. " The towering droid. Four men - the lover, the apostate, the visionary, and the assassin. The woman with kyber near her heart. Ghosts and saviors."

Jyn nodded and left the room without another word. Her hands shook at her sides as she made her way to the stateroom she shared with Cassian. He wasn't there yet, so she stripped off her clothes and tossed them into the wall-mounted washer. She went into the luxurious 'fresher and stepped into the sonic shower unit. She didn't move at all as the sonic used vibrations and energies to rid her body of dirt and grime. She just stood there in silence as a subtle, pleasant scent was imbued into her newly-clean hair and skin. Jyn moved like a machine as she pulled her plain white pajamas from the wardrobe in the stateroom, and she sat on the edge of the bed as she waited for Cassian to get back.

Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi were Jedi. If anyone was in tune with the Force, it was them. And Jyn's mother had told her to trust the Force. But as Jyn brushed her fingers over the crystal at her neck, she felt queasy and uncertain. How could it be that the arrival of Jyn and her friends - described in flowery but accurate terms - could have been foretold years earlier in a parallel reality? Moreover, how could it be that their arrival would mean the success or failure of a rebellion?

Well, Jyn reasoned, their deaths had at least helped out one rebellion already.

She looked up when the stateroom door hissed and slid open. Cassian walked in and immediately started talking.

"Okay," he said. "I think I've got them less confused about the nuances between foods. You know, the problem is that they just sort of heard the word chip and… Jyn, what's the matter?"

He stopped, his jacket halfway pulled off as he registered the look of distress on Jyn's face. She patted the bed beside her and said,

"Will you sit down and just listen for a moment? It would appear as though we're the fulfillment of a prophecy."


	6. Chapter 6

Central Confederation Headquarters

Coruscant

"President Skywalker." Tima'a, Anakin's Togruta assistant, came walking into his office with a terrified expression on her face.

"What is it, Tima'a?" Anakin asked in a frustrated tone. He was struggling to perfect the speech he would be delivering tomorrow, which would be broadcast throughout the galaxy to commemorate the tenth anniversary of his service. Tima'a placed a holodoc on Anakin's desk with shaking hands and said,

"I just received this communication, sir. It's from Admiral Rae Sloane."

Anakin snatched the holodoc from where it sat on his desk and pressed his good hand to it to bring up the doc. As he read the words on the screen, he began to feel acutely ill.

From Admiral Sloane to President Skywalker:

The Confederation Dreadnought Snare was discovered to be operating fully on autopilot. Upon further investigation, it was discovered that Captain Leia Skywalker had left the Dreadnought with four humans and a large droid. Captain Luke Skywalker was seen briefly aboard the Snare but is believed to have left with the others. They departed aboard Capt. Leia Skywalker's BC-714 transport. Attempts to track the transport ship have been unsuccessful, and it is believed the tracking system was destroyed.

The Snare has been given a temporary crew to ensure its security. No further information to report at this time. Please advise Naval Command on how to handle the situation from here.

Anakin stared at the holodoc for a long moment, reading it three more times. Then he threw the holodoc at the wall as hard as he could, so hard that glass and metal twisted and flew through the office. Tima'a winced and put her hands up in front of her face. Anakin stopped a shard of glass from hitting the Togruta, using the Force to send it sailing at the wall instead.

"Get out of here," he growled at Tima'a, and she didn't hesitate in rushing out of the office. Anakin waited until the soundproof door had slid shut behind Tima'a, and then he screamed. He raked his cybernetic fingers over his desk and relished the awful sound that produced.

His children had betrayed him. Perhaps Anakin was not terribly surprised about Luke; the boy had always seemed far too interested in Jedi lore and the light side of the Force. But… Leia. For years, Anakin had taken solace in knowing that where Padmé had failed as a woman, Leia would succeed. His wife may have despised him enough to seal her own fate, but at least Anakin's daughter was loyal and brave in the right ways.

Leia. She had lied to him. She had gone along with the idea of keeping the prisoners until they could present their corpses to Yoda and Obi-Wan. But she'd abandoned the Dreadnought and disabled the tracking on her own luxury transport, and she'd disappeared with the prisoners and with Luke. Anakin was no fool; he knew where they'd gone.

He shut his eyes and reached out in the Force for Luke and for Leia. He needed to know where they were now, because wherever they were was on the way to Yoda. Anakin meditated long enough to hone in on his traitor daughter's signature, but he could not find Luke's. Leia's own presence in the Force was a weak pulse, not the powerful red orb it usually was. She was deliberately keeping him out. Anakin snarled where he sat and pushed his mind hard against the little red spark.

Where the blazes have you gone, Leia? he demanded in his mind. For a long while there was nothing. No location, no clear picture. Then, finally, there was the dull throb of a message. It was nebulous and abstract, but clear enough in tone. It felt like Leia's voice, though there were no words. There did not need to be words; Anakin knew exactly what her signature in the Force was saying.

It's over, Papa. You and I are enemies now.

* * *

BC-714 Transport Optimist

Even an hour after discussing the alleged prophecy with Cassian, Jyn couldn't find the peace to sleep. She lay in the stateroom's bed staring at the ceiling as he took his time in the 'fresher. He, too, seemed lodged in disbelief. How could they possibly be some kind of chosen ones ? How could their deaths, their transfers here have been foretold by Jedi? It was too much to take in, but, then, everything had been entirely too much ever since that beach on Scarif.

"Jyn?" she heard Cassian say softly from the door of the fresher. Jyn took her hand from the crystal around her neck and turned her face to him. He was standing in the threshold, one hand on each side of the doorjamb, naked and clean and more obviously handsome now than ever before. Jyn swallowed hard and studied Cassian's eyes, and he chewed his bottom lip for a moment before he said, "I'm glad I died on that beach."

Jyn frowned and sat up. "Why would you ever be glad to have died?"

"Because then I got to wake up with you, and fall in love with you, and stay with you," Cassian said matter-of-factly. "And if this prophecy is true, I will get to continue fighting alongside you. And there's no rebel I'd rather have with me, in any existence, than Jyn Erso."

"Oh." Jyn felt a sudden shiver of want then, the sense that she needed him in a way she'd never anticipated needing anybody. She stripped off her pajamas as gracefully as she could, and as she did, she mumbled, "Please come here, Cassian."

Once Jyn had tossed the pajamas away, she looked up to see Cassian standing before her. He'd gone a bit hard at the way Jyn had so quickly matched his nudity, and Jyn reached out from where she sat to stroke at him a little. She coursed her hand up and down his length and stared up at him, at the almost hollow look of need in his eyes. Cassian bucked his hips forward a little and put his hands on Jyn's shoulders.

"Will you lie down?" he asked, and Jyn nodded as she reluctantly pulled her hand from him. She slithered backward on the covers and arranged herself on the pillows, shutting her eyes and sighing when she felt Cassian's rough hands going over her body.

"I suppose… I'm glad I died on that beach, too, Cassian," she whispered as he massaged her breasts. She felt herself start to go warm and wet between her legs, and when she opened her eyes, she could see that Cassian looked a bit conflicted.

"How does us being here save a rebel movement?" Cassian demanded, his hands moving up Jyn's body until they snared themselves in her hair. "How is this prophecy real? A girl with a crystal? The lover? The towering droid? Ghosts and saviors… how could they possibly…"

"I don't know," Jyn said honestly, shaking her head. "I know that soon enough, we'll see Baze and Chirrut, and then we'll see Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi, and maybe we'll figure out what the purpose is."

"The purpose of what?" Cassian asked, his fingers tightening in desperation against Jyn's scalp. She arched her back a little and mumbled,

"The purpose of us . Of all of us. Of why we died on Scarif. Of why we're here. Of what happens next. Right now, Cassian, all I can bring myself to care about is you being inside of me."

"What a delicious distraction from all this nonsense you are," Cassian noted. He moved more quickly and assertively then than he'd ever done with Jyn. He wrapped his hands around her ankles and squeezed as he scooted toward her on his knees. He bent down and kissed her, so hard and with such vigor that Jyn squealed in surprise. He tasted like paradise just now, and she drank him in as she felt his thumbs running around her ankles. Suddenly he'd torn himself from her mouth and was kneeling between her legs again. He started to edge Jyn's ankles upward and gave her an expectant look. Jyn understood then, and she gamely moved her ankles to Cassian's shoulders. She bent her knees so that they nearly touched her chest, and she heard Cassian make a feral little noise.

Jyn's hands flew to Cassian's sinewy arms when he pushed his way into her. This angle, this arrangement, allowed him to burrow himself so deeply that Jyn could not stay silent. She squeezed his arms and cried out, lost between pain and pleasure.

"Too much?" Cassian asked as he started to rock his hips, but Jyn feverishly shook her head and insisted through gritted teeth,

"Just enough."

He lovingly rubbed her thighs as he pumped himself, slowly at first as Jyn acclimated to the feel of the intense depth. She tipped her head back and pushed her breasts up to him after a while, and his hands moved to cup one breast and tweak the nipple of the other. Jyn groaned at the way everything was stimulated at once. She met Cassian's eyes and said in an unyielding voice,

"Don't you dare stop now, Cassian Andor."

He looked very pleased with himself then, his mouth quirking halfway up as he quickened his hips and adjusted the angle just a little. That was almost too much, for Jyn's clit was being rubbed relentlessly every time Cassian burrowed deeply into her. His hands left her breasts, reaching for her hips and holding them tightly for leverage. Jyn's own shaking fingers went from Cassian's arms to his heaving chest, and she could feel the way his heart was thrumming.

When she came, it was like a string breaking. Tighter and tighter, stretching and aching, and then… snap . Everything went warm, everything squeezed, everything was washing over her like a divine wave. And all Jyn could do was to moan Cassian's name so loudly she was very sure someone else aboard the luxury transport would hear. She didn't care. She couldn't care. Cassian was collapsing atop her now, groaning and grunting as his hips jerked wildly. She lowered her legs from his shoulders, just now noticing the dull soreness from bending them so much. Cassian's hands flew back into Jyn's hair and his mouth met hers again. He moaned against her lips as his cock flooded her with his completion, and as Jyn seized his scruffy cheeks, she moaned right back.

"I love you," she heard herself whispering shamelessly when at last the kiss broke. "Cassian, I do. I love you."

"I know you do," Cassian nodded, touching his forehead to Jyn's as he took a shaking breath. He shut his dark eyes and murmured, "I died so I could love you, and I'd die a thousand times again if every time I wound up like this."

* * *

Dagobah

"Ah! Chirrut Imwe. Baze Malbus. I must admit, I did not think the likelihood of seeing you again was very high. In fact, I thought the most likely outcome to all of this would be that you both died on this forsaken nightmare land of swamps and insects."

"Good to see you, too, Kay-Tu," Chirrut said calmly as he and Baze stepped aboard the transport. Baze glanced around, his filthy form contrasting sharply with the clean and slick interior of the ship. He raised his eyebrows and sounded impressed as he said,

"Nice transport. If I wasn't actively being welcomed aboard, I'd be inclined to steal it."

"Baze. Chirrut." Jyn gestured to the two figures who stood behind the cockpit, and she said, "This is Leia Skywalker and her twin brother, Luke. The ship belongs to Leia, and Luke -"

"Is the one who knows the Jedi," Chirrut smiled. He walked blindly but confidently to where Luke stood and extended his hand. "The Force is so very strong with you."

Luke Skywalker looked a little confused as he shook Chirrut's hand. Luke hesitated for a moment and then finally spoke as he lowered his hand. "You let the Force control what you do, instead of the other way around," he said quietly. "The Jedi channel the Force. But you, Chirrut Imwe… the Force channels you."

Chirrut smiled peacefully and shrugged. "If I am an instrument of the Force, that is a grand honor indeed."

Luke grinned, and Baze Malbus looked almost jealous at the near-instant connection between Luke and Chirrut. Baze glanced over to Bodhi and then to Leia, and he said,

"As grateful as we both are to be taken to this Jedi hiding-place, I think we should get going. Dagobah is very well-known. It would seem that wherever we're going…"

"Where we're going is just about as unknown as planets come," K-2 said almost sharply. "I only hope the insects there are less disgusting than the ones here."

Leia smirked and said to Bodhi, "The coordinates to Selvaris are already in the system. Go ahead, Bodhi."

Things moved quickly then, as Bodhi and Luke took up the landing gear and got the ship sailing up through Dagobah's murky atmosphere. Jyn felt Cassian gently take her hand in his as they both stared out the ship's viewport. The inky black expanse of space gave way with a shake to the blue blur of hyperspace, and Bodhi said with a degree of pride,

"All right. We're on course, people. Next stop… Wild Space."

"Approximately twenty-five days until we reach Selvaris," Leia noted, glancing around at the ship's inhabitants and giving a wry smile, "Let's all try to get along, shall we?"

"I, for one, look forward to an increase in holovid quality," K-2SO told the others. "The holotheater on this ship has the potential to be a very pleasant place when it isn't used to project drivel."

He walked away without another word, and beside Jyn, Cassian rolled his eyes. Suddenly Chirrut rose from the seat he'd taken, his milky eyes going wide and then settling on Luke Skywalker.

"A prophecy. I can feel it. Please, will you tell me what it is?"

Leia looked to her brother, concern in her eyes. Jyn remembered the term used for Chirrut in the prophecy itself: the visionary . Luke Skywalker pulled himself from his co-pilot's chair and moved to stand before Baze and Chirrut. He crossed his arms over his black tunic and said matter-of-factly,

"Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi shared a vision a long time ago. For years, they have referenced it, to me and to others, as their reason to hope that the resistance against my father might one day succeed."

"We believe the prophecy was about you," Leia informed Chirrut and Baze. "All of you."

Chirrut's thin fingers tightened around his bamboo walking stick, and Baze demanded, "What's the prophecy say?"

Luke recited it, using the exact words Leia had used when she'd explained all this to Jyn. " The towering droid. Four men - the lover, the apostate, the visionary, and the assassin. The woman with kyber near her heart. Ghosts and saviors. "

Baze looked almost frightened, but Chirrut's face went utterly serene. It was clear he was speaking directly to Baze then as he said in a gentle murmur, "You see, my friend? I told you there was a reason for all of this. Do you still want to go back to the conflict that killed us the first time?"

Baze said nothing. He just stood slowly and looked around the ship again. "Wouldn't mind a sonic shower, and I'm assuming this thing has a lot of them."

* * *

Central Confederation Headquarters

Coruscant

"President Skywalker?" Tima'a stayed in the threshold of the office door, apparently even more afraid now than she'd been the last time she's spoken to Anakin. "His Excellency Count Dooku is here to see you."

"Send him in," Anakin said tersely. He waited until Dooku's hoverchair came floating into his office, and then he barked at Tima'a, "Shut the door."

She did, and Anakin noticed just how quickly Dooku's health seemed to be deteriorating. He looked downright wizened today, his hands shaking visibly and his face sagging and sallow. Anakin sat up straight and said,

"Master, do you know why I asked you to come?"

"I sensed… in the Force… a break between your children and yourself," Dooku said, coughing quietly. "Will you tell me what the matter is, Anakin?"

Anakin let out a shaky sigh and drummed his fingers on his desk as he stared out the window at the Jedi Temple. "That mysterious group you found on Scarif? Well, we captured them, as I'm sure you know."

"After the parade on Naboo." Dooku coughed again and noted, "A shame that Orson Krennic had to fall victim to their tomfoolery. What happened to them after Naboo?"

Anakin tore his gaze from the temple and looked back to his master. "I interrogated them myself, Master, and had difficulty making sense of the altered realities I saw in their minds. Leia and I determined that they had probably been stolen from our own forces, their minds and memories wiped by Yoda and Obi-Wan."

"Sent to eliminate you based on faulty memories," Dooku nodded. "It makes sense. Seems like something Yoda might do. Did you kill them all?"

"No," Anakin admitted, knowing that that had been a grave error. He felt his cheeks go hot with embarrassment as he said, "I wanted their… bodies… to be fresh when I delivered them to Yoda and Obi-Wan."

Dooku's face darkened. "Luke has been searching for a very long time."

"I know, Master," Anakin nodded. "And, as it turns out, Leia is… Leia is a traitor."

His eyes burned and he glanced back out to the Jedi Temple. By the end of tonight, he determined, the temple would be a pile of smoldering rubble. Anakin picked up the holodoc he'd received from Admiral Sloane explaining how Leia had absconded with the prisoners and abandoned the Snare. Anakin activated the doc and passed it carefully to Dooku. The ancient man read the doc and then gave a heavy sigh as he set the doc down on Anakin's desk. His pale eyes met Anakin's, and he said unequivocally,

"When you find that transport, you will need to kill everyone aboard. Everyone."

"I know, Master," Anakin nodded. He had killed Padmé when she had vocally opposed his political aspirations, but there was something achingly different about killing his own children. He gulped as Count Dooku said sharply,

"I sense hesitation from you. They may be your offspring, but they are also your enemies, and that is a path they have chosen for themselves."

Anakin shut his eyes and tried to envision to idea of his red lightsaber cutting down his daughter. No, he decided. Leia deserved better than that. Luke would take a battle, to be certain. But Leia would die like her mother - strangled and quiet. Anakin's chest ached just a little, and he heard Dooku say,

"Take that emotion, Anakin, and funnel it, channel it. Remember the rage you felt before Padmé's death and the grief afterward. What happened to you then, ten years ago?"

Anakin took a breath and opened his eyes. "I became more powerful, Master."

Dooku smirked and nodded. "Yes, Anakin. A good Sith always becomes more powerful when his enemies are destroyed. Pay no mind to the labels between you. An enemy is an enemy. Do you understand?"

He coughed and wheezed, and Anakin waited until Dooku met his eyes again. He nodded and said, "Yes, Master. I understand."

* * *

BC-714 Transport Optimist

"Hello, there, Baze." Jyn smiled as the ragged-looking assassin sank into the chair opposite her. "Where's Chirrut?"

"Still working with Luke Skywalker on 'Force levitation,'" Baze said. At his rather bitter tone, Jyn flashed a look to Bodhi and Cassian, both of whom seemed to understand her wordless message.

"Anyone up for a drink?" Bodhi asked. "I'm bored. Not that you aren't all good company, and not that I don't like holovids and Dejarik, but…"

"Drinking sounds good." Cassian gestured for a serving droid to come over, and he looked to the others for approval as he suggested, "Twenty-four shots of Grakkyn?"

Jyn's mouth fell open, and Bodhi laughed a bit as he said, "Six shots of liquor each? You trying to kill us, Captain Andor?"

"Come on," Baze said in a bit of a growl. "We could all use a good drinking game just now. We'll play 'I've Never.' Yeah?"

"Sure." Cassian nodded to Baze and then to the serving droid, speaking clearly and carefully as he said, "Take twenty-four shot glasses and fill them three-quarters of the way each. The liquor is Grakkyn from Kashyyyk. The green glass bottle."

"Right away, sir," the droid said before wheeling off. Jyn smirked and told Cassian,

"I hope they really are getting better at following orders. Otherwise… who knows what the blazes they'll bring us?"

She glanced across the elegant secondary dining space, which was smaller than the main dining room but far more formal. In the corner, some speakers played a soothing stream of music. Jyn had a sudden idea, and she looked at Baze and said,

"While we wait for the drinks, will you dance with me?"

Baze guffawed and shook his head. "Dance with your boyfriend, little girl."

"Baze." Jyn gave him a very serious look. "Dance with me, will you? Listen to the music; it's the same three-step I danced on Scarif."

"With Cassian," Baze clarified, and Cassian practically shoved him from his chair as he barked,

"Go dance with her, will you?"

Baze grumbled and heaved himself upright. Jyn hurried to the panel on the wall and turned up the music volume, and then she held her arms out expectantly to the scowling Baze. He was cleaner here, with his washed hair and skin and his neatly-tailored beige clothing, than she'd ever seen him before. Baze grumbled as he put one hand on Jyn's waist and closed his fist around hers. Jyn tried to remember the dance steps Cassian had taught her on Scarif, and she was distantly aware of how Cassian and Bodhi were talking in low voices where they sat.

"You're jealous of how Luke Skywalker and Chirrut have become close so quickly," Jyn said without pretense. Baze ripped at his bottom lip with his teeth and shook his head as he said roughly,

"It's… no. He's always been mad about the Force; now he finally has someone to… discuss it with him."

Baze sounded almost tired by the time he finished talking, and Jyn gave him a knowing little smirk. She stared up at Baze's worn and scarred face, and she said,

"You know, I didn't fall in love with Cassian until we were here. Until we'd come to this permutation."

Baze said nothing for a very long moment. Finally, his feet missed a beat in the dance, and he mumbled hesitantly, "I've loved him for ages, fools that we both are."

"But did you ever tell him?" Jyn asked, relatively sure she knew the answer. When Baze shook his head, Jyn suggested, "Ask him tonight about what he and Luke Skywalker discussed. Let him get all excited in describing what he's learning. And then tell him you love him, Baze, because I strongly suspect you'll like what you hear back."

"Thanks for the advice," Baze said in a dry, biting tone, though his eyes warmed a little. He pulled away from his dancing stance and looked over to where the serving droids were loading shot glasses onto the round table where Bodhi and Cassian said chuckling. Baze scoffed and said, "Oh, look. The booze has arrived. Let's all get staggeringly drunk, shall we?"

Jyn reluctantly followed Baze back to the table and sat beside Cassian. He reached beneath the table for her knee and squeezed a bit, and Bodhi said,

"This game you described… 'I've Never.' What are the rules?"

"We take it turns," Cassian explained, "truthfully stating something we have never done. The others who have done that thing must take a shot of Grakkyn."

"Jyn, why don't you start?" Cassian suggested, and she shoved his shoulder a little as she tried to think of something cheeky. Finally a grin spread over her face, and she said,

"I have never… played with my own cock."

Baze made a choked little laughing sound, and Bodhi threw his hands up.

"Of course you haven't!" he protested. "You're a woman!"

"I mean, as far as you know I am," Jyn asserted with a smile, and Cassian reached for a shot glass as he confirmed,

"You're a woman, all right." He knocked the Grakkyn back and winced at its sweet, biting taste. Baze and Bodhi did the same, and Jyn just sat proud and smiling. She turned her eyes to Bodhi and said,

"Go ahead, then."

Bodhi sighed and thought for a moment. Finally he said in an almost sad voice, "I have never flown a starfighter."

"You haven't?" Jyn asked in disbelief, and Bodhi shook his head as he admitted,

"Failed the exams."

Cassian groaned as he reached for another shot glass. He was the only one that had to drink this time. He hissed away the burn of the liquor and declared,

"I'll go next. Need to come up with something to make Jyn drink. It's hardly fair that she stay sober." He gave her a mischievous little look and then glanced to Baze and Bodhi. Finally he said, "I have never been on Vallt."

Jyn made an angry little sound and snatched a shot glass. She'd been born on Vallt, which, of course, Cassian knew. She tossed back the Grakkyn and spluttered at the taste. She watched as Baze took another shot, and Bodhi asked,

"When were you on Vallt?"

"About twenty years ago," Baze said simply, "with Chirrut. There were rumors that some Separatists were hoarding kyber crystals on Vallt, but it didn't lead anywhere. Well, it led back to Jedha. Long story."

"It's your turn," Jyn informed Baze, and he huffed as he shoved his grey-streaked hair behind his shoulders. He rapped his knuckles on the table as the music from the speakers switched to a maudlin piece. He finally said, "I've never told anybody… anybody that I loved them."

Bodhi smirked and said, "Not sure whether to be proud or ashamed, but I haven't, either."

Jyn took two shot glasses and handed one to Cassian. She quirked up half her mouth and tapped her glass to his.

"Cheers," she said, before drinking the shot. Cassian whistled quietly and drank before he said,

"I'm going to need help walking out of here, I think."

"Your turn, Jyn," said Bodhi, and she tried to keep her body steady as the first hints of intoxication started to settle into her mind. Grakkyn was strong stuff, she thought. She looked at the other three men and narrowed her eyes.

"I've never murdered anybody."

Cassian tipped his head, his eyes looking a little glazed as he insisted, "You've killed."

Jyn scoffed. "I said murdered. Drink, Cassian."

Bodhi giggled a bit as he watched Baze and Cassian drink. "For once, my pacifist heart is serving me well," he said. "Never killed anybody unprovoked."

Jyn gave him a high-five and then said, "Go on, Bodhi. Let's put these two on the floor."

Bodhi smiled and said, "I have never - strictly speaking - been in prison."

Baze scowled. "You were held captive by Saw Gerrera."

"That wasn't a prison, though," Bodhi insisted. "I know the rest of you have. Go on."

"I thought we were allies, Bodhi," Jyn complained with feigned outrage. She took a drink, remembering the labor camp on Wobani. That hadn't been the first time she'd been locked up, either. She was somewhat prone to disobedience.

"I can't drink any more," Baze said suddenly. He looked at Jyn and said, "I have something to do tonight that… that requires me to be able to speak."

Jyn nodded. She knew that the four shots of Grakkyn would hit Baze hard enough as it was. And tonight Baze needed to ensure that Chirrut - his dear friend and apparently someone who meant far more - understood Baze's jealousy about Luke Skywalker. Baze pulled himself to stand, already swaying a bit, and he muttered,

"Night, then."

"See you, Baze," Bodhi said, rubbing at his eye with his fists as he noted, "Leia probably wouldn't be too happy if I got that much more drunk. Have to be on guard and all that. I'll call it a night."

"Night, Bodhi," Jyn said. As Bodhi left, Cassian confirmed with the service droids that they didn't need the rest of the liquor, and the table was cleared. Cassian stared at Jyn for a moment once they were finally alone, his mind having been socked the hardest by four shots of the powerful Grakkyn. Jyn's head was swimming a little, but Cassian looked downright drunk. Jyn smiled and dragged her knuckles over his scruff.

"Dance with me," she demanded, and Cassian scoffed.

"You didn't get your fill with Baze?"

"I was lecturing Baze about Chirrut," Jyn reminded him. "I was far too busy to focus on the dancing. Don't you remember… what it was like on Scarif?"

"Yes." Cassian nodded and blinked a few times. "Took everything I had not to kiss you right there in front of everybody."

Jyn's hand tightened on his face, and she said again, "Dance with me, Cassian."

"Okay." He took her hand and kissed it, and as the two of them rose and walked over to the open space by the speakers, his feet were clumsy. He mumbled in a sarcastic tone, "This'll go really well, I think."

"I'll help you. I'm an expert dancer," Jyn joked. She put one hand on his shoulder as Cassian pulled her closer by the small of her back. His hand was warm against hers, and he listened to the music for a moment before he licked his lip and said,

"This is a two-step, not a three-step."

"I can probably figure that out," Jyn insisted, hearing the little slur in her words. "Two steps instead of three. Let's do it."

Cassian chuckled and touched his forehead to Jyn's as they swayed in a slow, two-beat rhythm. He touched his mouth gently to Jyn's cheekbone and whispered,

"How do you do it, Jyn?"

She twisted her face until their lips met, and she asked, "Do what?"

Cassian's hand tightened against hers, and his rhythm faltered as his liquor-laced voice replied, "How do you manage to get more beautiful every single day? Just when I think you're the funniest, smartest, prettiest woman in the whole… in the whole galaxy…"

"Cassian." Jyn felt her eyes prickle with emotion she hadn't asked for. She took a shaky breath and let her feet stop moving. Neither of them had the coordination for dancing. Not now, as the Grakkyn settled into their veins and made them sloppy. Jyn lowered her hand but didn't release Cassian's, and she met his glassy eyes for a long moment before she whispered, "Kiss me."

He did, seizing her face in his hands and sending her stumbling backward with the force of his kiss. Jyn pressed her palms against the wall, overwhelmed by the powerful way Cassian was using his tongue and lips to adore her mouth. She squealed quietly against him, and then there was the sudden sound of a very exasperated electronic voice.

"I would tell you two to get a room, but you already have a room. So go to that room, will you?"

Cassian flew away from Jyn, looking so unsteady that Jyn grabbed his elbow to make sure he didn't fall. K-2 loomed in the doorway to the dining room, his illuminated eyes somehow conveying silent disapproval. He put his hands on his narrow metal hips and said angrily,

"I am more than a little fed up with encountering you two in questionable situations. Censor yourselves. Ugh."

"Sorry, Kay-Tu," Jyn said, trying very hard not to laugh. As K-2 walked away, shaking his head and muttering about indecency, Cassian whispered,

"To our room then, huh?"

Now Jyn didn't stifle her laugh. She just nodded and laughed, wishing distantly that this journey through hyperspace could last forever.

But nothing, Jyn Erso knew, could last forever. Nothing.

* * *

" _Papa? Mama?"_

 _Jyn padded across the black soil of her family's farm on Lah'mu to where her parents stood calmly. It was as though they were waiting for her, as thought they'd been patiently waiting for a very long time. Lyra Erso's lips turned up in a contented little smile as Jyn neared. Essie, the family's farm droid, labored quietly in the fog-cloaked field behind Galen. Jyn met her mother's eyes. Lyra smiled a bit wider and reached for Jyn's hair._

" _How very proud you have made us both," she murmured. Jyn covered her mother's hand with her own and turned her face to her father._

" _Do you like him?" she asked. Somehow, she knew her parents would know she meant Cassian. Her mother laughed a little and nodded, lowering her hand from Jyn's face. Galen's tone was rather abruptly firm as he said,_

" _Do not ever let that one go, Jyn. Do you understand?"_

 _Jyn swallowed hard and glanced over her mother's shoulder to Essie, then back to her father. "I'm doing my best not to let him go, Papa."_

" _Jyn." Galen took his daughter's face in his hands, his voice shaking a little as he said, "He is your constant. You are his constant. He loves you with all that he is."_

 _Galen released the bewildered Jyn, and Lyra touched at her daughter's kyber crystal necklace. "Trust in the Force and trust in him, Jyn."_

Jyn jolted awake, taking a moment to figure out exactly where she was. Ah, yes. The bed she shared with Cassian aboard Leia's luxury transport. But hadn't she just, a minute earlier, been on Lah'mu with her parents?

A dream. A silly, stupid dream. Jyn shut her eyes and held fast to the crystal around her neck. She could hear the dull roar of the sonic shower running in the fresher and knew that Cassian was in there. Jyn rose and dressed herself, knowing that they'd be pulling out of hyperspace soon. She looked at the chronometer and did a bit of math. If what Leia had told them the night before was right, they would be landing on Selvaris in about six hours' time. Jyn put on the sturdiest clothes she had - hardy gray leggings and a matching tunic, with a black bantha leather jacket over the top. She'd bought this before she and Cassian had left Bespin.

Bespin. The place where she'd told Cassian she loved him. Suddenly, as Jyn sank onto the side of the bed, remembering the vividness of her parents' faces in her dream, she was almost overcome. Jyn Erso did not make a habit of crying, for it showed weakness in the worst way, but she nearly cried now.

The fresher went quiet, and after a few minutes, Cassian came walking out with a white towel around his hips. He eyed Jyn for a moment, and then he came and sat beside her on the bed. For a second, neither of them said anything, but then Cassian noted in a low voice,

"We don't know for sure what we're going to find on Selvaris. Or anywhere else."

Jyn shook her head and admitted, "No, we don't."

Cassian licked his bottom lip and touched his fingers together. "I do not have… the appropriate hardware, if you will, to do this. But I'll get it later, if you want."

Jyn's heart started to flutter in her chest, and she reached for Cassian's hand as she fought to keep her breath steady. He continued,

"If I die again, Jyn… if I die with you again, it would be the highest honor for me to die as your husband. And if we die before that, I would like it if you would consider me… well, you know."

Jyn just nodded, her parents' faces flashing in her mind. Cassian squeezed Jyn's hand a bit and asked,

"So, would you maybe think about -"

"Yes." Jyn dragged her thumb over his knuckles. "As soon as the opportunity presents itself. The very minute."

Cassian looked then as if he were suppressing a great wide grin. He said almost reverently, "Jyn, I love you with all that I am."

"I know you do." The burn in Jyn's eyes couldn't be stemmed then, and as a lone tear worked its way down her cheek, Cassian used a knuckle to brush it away. Jyn covered her hand with his and shut her eyes. She thought then that perhaps it hadn't been a simple dream, after all. She whispered the words her father had said so insistently. "I am your constant, Cassian, and you are mine."


	7. Chapter 7

"Illumination Base Selvaris, this is BC-714 Transport _Optimist_ notifying our arrival." Luke Skywalker released the talk button from the transceiver. Through the viewport, the lovely colors of Selvaris approached.

"Tell me," Chirrut said quietly to Baze. "Tell me what you see."

"Lots of green. Lots of blue," Baze replied with a shrug. His voice was unemotional, but Jyn watched as he turned his face down to Chirrut, and the man's usually stern face softened. "I think you'll like it just fine."

"I see a planet," noted K-2SO dryly, "but that hasn't necessarily meant anything good the last few times it's happened."

"Jyn," Leia said from her left, and as Jyn turned, she noticed how the daughter of Anakin Skywalker's face had gone a bit pale. "My father is doing everything he can to find Luke and me in the Force. He and I won't be able to stay here for very long."

"What?" Cassian said from beside Jyn. "You're going to leave us stranded here?"

"Not stranded," Luke said over his shoulder in a firm voice. "They have all kinds of ships here. But Leia and I can only reliably keep the President out for so long."

"Well, where are you going to go?" Jyn asked as the ship descended closer to the surface of the jungle planet before them. Leia shrugged and said,

"We'll probably resupply and make some random hyperspace runs outside the channels," she said, "checking in with Selvaris periodically… until a mission is devised."

"A mission," Bodhi repeated from the pilot's seat. "And who's going to come up with this mission?"

"Yoda, of course," said Chirrut Imwe with a serene sort of confidence. "And Obi-Wan Kenobi."

"Oh, of course," K-2 said in a snide tone.

Jyn just watched then as the splotches of emerald green morphed more clearly into forest cover through the viewport. She gulped hard and squeezed briefly at Cassian's hand as she whispered,

"Make one life feel like a hundred."

Cassian squeezed back and then released her hand, for the both of them had to hold fast to the support rail for landing. Luke and Bodhi murmured to one another as they guided the transport onto a long, wide ferroconcrete strip. The landing gear bumped and thudded a little as the transport made contact with the planet. A dizzy feeling came over Jyn as the transport settled on the ground; after a month in hyperspace, it was an odd feeling to be so nearly stationary.

The transport's running equipment came to a smooth, quiet stop, and as Luke Skywalker unfastened his bindings, he turned round from his seat and said, "Welcome to Wild Space."

* * *

"Here is our training facility," said the grey-haired Obi-Wan Kenobi, his brown robe fluttering as he gestured grandly to his right. "We use it to maintain our skills in hand-to-hand combat, as well as lightsaber combat."

"Lightsabers," breathed Chirrut, and Obi-Wan Kenobi smiled a little. He glanced over his shoulder to Luke Skywalker and noted,

"The Force has a unique place within this one."

Luke nodded. "I think so, Master."

 _Master_. It seemed strange to Jyn that Luke kept referring to Obi-Wan Kenobi like that. Had he secretly been training as a Jedi, outside the influence or suspicion of his powerful father? Leia didn't seem nearly as familiar with this Jedi Temple, nor with the Jedi inside of it, as did her brother.

"This is the canteen," Kenobi said, and on their left they passed a stone-walled dining area, where a curious-looking Bith and a white-haired human male sat at a table. In the corridor, they passed a female Togruta who shot them a strange glance for a moment before politely nodding to Kenobi.

"Master Kenobi," Jyn said cautiously, "may I ask exactly what sort of resistance movement you're running from this base?"

Kenobi stopped then, turning round slowly and giving Jyn a very meaningful look. He folded his hands beneath the sleeves of his robes and said, "I'm sure the Skywalkers told you about the vision Master Yoda and I shared years ago. The one that haunts us still."

Jyn nodded, and beside her Cassian shifted uneasily on his feet. But Kenobi seemed to pay no heed to the discomfort of the new arrivals. He moved his fingers to his grey beard and stroked a little, and he said,

"We have not, admittedly, been able to front a terribly effective opposition to the established Confederation for some time now. Not since the majority of our Clone Troopers were destroyed. I'm sure that was all explained to you, too. But there is hope yet for those living under Anakin's boot of power, and _that_ is something I will let Master Yoda explain to you. He's just through here, if you'll follow me."

He led the way down a smooth beige corridor with peaceful lighting, until he came to a door at the end. He pressed his hand to a scanner there, and when the door slid open, Jyn was surprised to see a small green alien who could not have reached higher than her knee.

"Master Yoda," Chirrut breathed, as though he could sense the alien's presence in the meeting room they had entered.

"Unique in the Force, this one is," Yoda said in a strange little croak, and Kenobi nodded.

"Master Yoda, allow me to introduce -"

"Baze Malbus - the assassin. Bodhi Rook - the apostate. K-2SO - the towering droid. Chirrut Imwe - the visionary." Yoda nodded at each of them in turn. Then he turned to Jyn and Cassian, and his ancient-looking eyes crinkled a bit. "Cassian Andor - the lover. And Jyn Erso."

"The woman with kyber near her heart," Jyn recited, bringing her crystal pendant from beneath her tunic. "We are ghosts."

"Saviors," Yoda nodded. He looked at the group and then to Obi-Wan Kenobi, and he noted to his fellow Jedi, "Individually talented, each of them are. Powerful alone, each of them are. But together… unstoppable, they may be, for the cause of the galaxy."

"Together, we are Rogue One," Cassian said firmly to Yoda. The little green alien looked up, and Cassian took a steadying breath. "We weren't together until just a little while before our deaths. But together we captured and transmitted plans for a superweapon."

"The superweapon that killed you all," Leia clarified, but Yoda chided her,

"Martyrs for the galaxy, they have already been. Back into Wild Space, you and young Luke Skywalker must go."

Leia nodded and Luke said to Obi-Wan Kenobi, "We have been doing all we can to keep him out. I'm not sure what else we could do, Master, short of -"

"No, Luke." Kenobi shook his head firmly. "There's no martyrdom in _that_ , you understand? The two of you wander around hyperspace for a while. Meditate. Keep working on deepening your meditation."

"And if he finds us?" Leia asked cautiously. Yoda's face darkened, and the little alien insisted,

"Allow him to find this place, you must not. Contact us you will, Captain, in two weeks' time."

"What will have happened in two weeks?" asked Baze, and Chirrut smiled as he said,

"By then, we'll have a plan."

"A plan to do _what?_ " demanded Bodhi.

"Unique in the Force, this one is," Yoda said again, gesturing to Chirrut. "A vessel for the Force he is. A new sort of warfare, his powers enable."

"With the strength of the Jedi here, and with the individual abilities you all possess, there is hope for an ambush," Obi-Wan Kenobi said. "There are senators in waiting, on hold until the old republic can be restored. But to do that…"

"My father has to be removed," Leia said firmly, "and the people must be made aware of why his rule is tyranny. I trust, Master Kenobi, that the records I've been sending are safe here?"

"Of course, Captain." Kenobi bowed his head and then clarified to the others, "We have documented footage of Anakin Skywalker ordering slaughters, massacres, economic interventions to manipulate his subjects… and, of course, all of those deeds being carried out."

"So you'll use propaganda - and assassination - to replace the government of a tyrant?" Jyn asked incredulously. "How does that make you any better than him?"

"Remember what I told you, Jyn?" Cassian said quietly from beside her. "We'd all done very questionable things for the Rebel Alliance. Do you not think this might be much the same? None of it is black and white. It's all gray, isn't it?"

"Only a Sith deals in absolutes," Chirrut pronounced matter-of-factly, earning him a smile of approval from Obi-Wan Kenobi.

"So Luke and I will go," Leia said, "aboard the transport. We'll check back in two weeks. If you haven't heard from us by then… assume he's found us in the Force."

"Let us hope with all we are that that does not occur," Kenobi said.

* * *

Later that evening, the rag-tag group that had once gone by the call sign Rogue One sat in the canteen. They were eating simple meals of grain, meat, and vegetables without much flavor or offense. K-2SO loomed over them all, much too big for his chair, and he said,

"That Rodian over there has been staring for a half hour."

Jyn chuckled a little as she sipped at her muja juice. She lowered her voice and said to the others, "So. What do we do now? We just wait until someone plugs us into military plans?"

"It seems to me there were no military plans before we got here," Baze said cautiously. "This all feels very haphazard."

"Does it matter?" Bodhi demanded, and when the others looked at him, K-2 said,

"He's right. You're all just corpses that have been reanimated in another dimension."

"Thanks, Kay-Tu," Cassian said. They all ate in silence for a long moment, and then Chirrut asked,

"So… when's the wedding?"

Jyn nearly choked on her food, and K-2 let out a mechanical gasp. Cassian set his metal fork down and shot an almost apologetic glance to Bodhi and Baze.

"It's nothing formal," he insisted. Jyn felt her cheeks go very hot, and she swigged more muja juice before she said,

"Don't be expecting me to walk down any aisles or anything. Cassian and I will take care of it… erm, as soon as we have someone to take care of it for us."

"Am I mistaken?" K-2 said crisply. "At first, I thought we were discussing an engagement, but you make it seem more like an infestation of some kind, Jyn Erso."

"It's an engagement," Cassian assured the droid, and Bodhi managed to say,

"Congratulations, man! And Jyn! I guess we should have seen that coming, huh?"

"I can marry you," Chirrut insisted, and Baze rolled his eyes so hard they looked like they would fall out of his skull.

"Guardians of the Whills are only authorized to carry out marriage ceremonies on Jedha. You know that, Chirrut."

"Wait." Jyn reached for Cassian's hand beneath the table and met his eyes. He nodded once, and she said to Chirrut, "Right. If you'll do it for us, then let's do it tonight. In the barracks. All of us, and no one else."

"We're all marrying each other?" K-2 asked incredulously, and Bodhi smacked the droid's arm with the back of his hand to chastise him. That seemed to hurt Bodhi much more than it had hurt K-2, and Bodhi hissed as he said,

"She means she just wants us all there, Kay-Tu. Just us reanimated corpses from another dimension. And you, I guess."

"Yes." Jyn nodded, and Cassian chuckled under his breath.

"Seems fitting," he said. "The lover and the woman with kyber near her heart, married in the Jedi Temple by the visionary."

"While the assassin, the towering droid, and the apostate stand watch," Baze nodded. "Well, if that's what you want."

"It's what they want," Chirrut said confidently, sipping his muja juice. "In two hours, then."

 _Illumination Base Selvaris_

Jyn stared at herself in the mirror and considered her reflection for a moment. She had washed up and changed into fresh clothes - the dark turquoise leggings and overdress she'd bought in Cloud City. They were the nicest clothes she had, the nicest ones she'd ever had, and so she'd put them on. She'd combed her hair out straight and slick, and she'd dabbed on the little samples of lip and cheek stain that she'd been handed in the shopping gallery on Bespin. She looked as good as she was ever wont to do, Jyn thought, so now she might as well go and get married.

As she made her way down the beige stone corridor toward the room where Cassian was allegedly waiting with the others, she pondered something. Most brides probably had their parents present at their weddings, and extended families and the lot. Jyn's only recent connection to her parents had been that dream aboard the transport, when her father and mother had both insisted that she stay with Cassian. Now Jyn wrapped her fingers around the kyber crystal her mother had given her all those years ago.

 _The woman with kyber near her heart. The lover._

Jyn knocked on the thick wooden door at the end of the hallway, and when it swung open, the crowded room was strangely quiet. Baze stood in the threshold, smirking a little as he said quietly over his shoulder,

"Yep. She dressed up."

Behind Baze, K-2 held out his hand to Bodhi and said, "That will be fifty credits. Thank you."

Cassian rolled his eyes and pushed Baze aside, pulling Jyn into the room and closing the door behind her. She tried to scowl at the men in the two-bunk, simple room where Baze and Chirrut had taken up residence. She crossed her arms over her fine turquoise overdress and insisted,

"I'm not dressed up. These are just clothes I bought on Bespin. And, anyway, Kay-Tu and Bodhi, what do you think you're doing betting on what I'll wear?"

"Can we just get on to the good part of things here?" Cassian dragged the pad of his thumb over the inside of Jyn's wrist, which made her shiver a little.

"You two stand in the middle," Chirrut said in a rather bossy tone. "Everyone else… move."

The thick window behind K-2 let in the last light of the evening, but the lamps on the wall gave enough glow for everyone to see. Jyn walked with Cassian into the space between the bunks and the 'fresher, feeling rather awkward at the way Baze, K-2, and Bodhi were watching. She sighed, her breath shaking, and she asked,

"Chirrut, have you ever actually married anyone before?"

Baze scoffed. "Dozens of times he's done it. On Jedha. It's one of his life's little joys, so thank you both."

Cassian shrugged. "Happy to provide."

Chirrut held up his hand to settle the room. Everyone got quiet and a bit more still, and the corners of Chirrut's mouth turned up as he said, "Today we witness the complete and joyful unification of Cassian Andor and Jyn Erso. Today, before us, their most dedicated friends, they pledge to one another their speech, action, thought, and body."

"Could have done without that last bit. I've seen enough of that already," K-2SO said down to Bodhi, in a voice much too loud for the occasion. Still, Jyn smiled a little, even as Cassian shot the droid a dirty glare. Chirrut waited patiently and continued,

"Jyn and Cassian have already lived and died together once. So whatever happens now is of little consequence; they are forever linked just as inextricably as they were on that beach on Scarif."

Jyn's eyes seared with sudden, unexpected emotion. She seized Cassian's hand and remembered what her mother had said in her dream. _Do not ever let that one go, Jyn._

Chirrut took a step toward Jyn and Cassian and lifted their linked hands, his smile widening a bit as he admitted, "See? I was about to tell you to join hands, but you have already done it. Jyn, repeat after me, all right?"

"All right." Jyn nodded and turned her eyes to Cassian. Suddenly, in his dark gaze, she saw everything. She saw the way he hadn't trusted her, nor her him, when they had first met. She saw the way that lack of trust had morphed and twisted into a deep friendship and something more, just on the cusp of death. She could feel him, smell him, taste him, even here just staring at him, and Jyn's knees went a bit weak. Chirrut spoke then, and Jyn tried her best to keep track of his words.

"I, Jyn Erso, take you, Cassian Andor, to be my husband and partner."

Jyn gulped through the knot in her throat, and when she felt Cassian squeeze her hand a little, saw the way he dug his teeth into his lip, she murmured,

"I, Jyn Erso, take you, Cassian Andor, to be my husband and partner."

"I will trust and honor you through joy and sorrow," Chirrut said, and Jyn repeated the words. Chirrut continued, "Whatever may come, I will always be beside you. I am your constant, and you are mine."

Jyn froze at that. Her face jerked to Chirrut and then back to Cassian, who seemed a bit perplexed, as well. Galen Erso had said those words to Jyn in her dream, and she had repeated them to Cassian after he'd proposed. Now Chirrut spoke the words, and Jyn was rendered mute.

"If she waits another three seconds to speak, the odds of this carrying through are very, very small," said K-2 from the edge of the room. Bodhi shushed him, but Jyn snapped to rights and met Cassian's eyes as she nodded. She licked her lips and said,

"Whatever may come, I will always be beside you. I am your constant, and you are mine."

Cassian repeated all the same words that Jyn had done, with substitutions where it made sense. Jyn focused on the motion of his lips, on the flash in his eyes, on the feel of his hand in hers. Suddenly she could feel Chirrut's hand on her shoulder, and she watched as he put his other hand on Cassian. He lowered his head and chanted,

"They are one with the Force, and the Force is with them. They are one with the Force, and the Force is with them. They are one with the Force, and the Force is with them." He raised his milky eyes and smiled crookedly. "Jyn and Cassian, do you both consent now to be bound as husband and wife?"

Jyn nodded. "I do."

Cassian's eyes glistened, and he said almost proudly. "I do."

"Then, as a Guardian of the Whill and a vessel of the Force, I pronounce you married, now and forever, from one corner of the galaxy to the other. Go on and kiss, then."

He stepped back, and Jyn smirked at the others. She looked at Baze and Bodhi and finally K-2, and she insisted, "Everybody look away."

"Not a chance," Baze teased. Jyn huffed and turned back to Cassian, but before she could do anything, he'd seized her cheeks in his hands and brought his lips to hers. Jyn squealed at the power behind his kiss, surprising for a cramped room with so little privacy. When he pulled away, she gave him a look halfway between a taunt and a threat.

"I suppose congratulations are in order," said K-2, "but may I rather firmly request that you two make your exit to your own room now?"

Jyn rolled her eyes. "Thank you. All of you," she said, and Cassian added,

"Wouldn't have had it any other way."

"And we were all honored to be here," Bodhi insisted. "Really. But… yeah. Go. To your room. Just… go on."

"Goodbye," Baze said, opening the door and gesturing over the threshold. Jyn felt her cheeks go hot as she led Cassian through the doorway. He was still thanking people over his shoulder as the door slammed shut. Jyn released his hand only so that she could open the door to the room where she'd gotten ready, the only barracks chamber with a double bed. Down the corridor, Jyn watched as the female Togruta she'd seen earlier passed, shooting them a glance that was a little too knowing. Jyn pushed the door open and walked quickly inside, refusing just now to remember where they were and who else was here.

None of it mattered now, anyway. Not now that she was Cassian's wife. She heard the door shut behind Cassian, and she stared at her hands, realizing how badly they were shaking.

"I love you," she whispered, and Cassian came behind her and snared his arms around her shoulders. He touched his lips to her neck and whispered,

"And I love you. More than you could ever know."

"I think I know." Jyn turned around and swallowed hard. "Those words, Cassian. _I am your constant, and you are mine_. Do you know where I first heard them?"

"No," he admitted, "but I first heard them from you on the transport."

"And I heard them from my father, in a dream that I had just before you proposed marriage to me." Jyn reached for Cassian's scruffy cheeks and whispered, "All of this supernatural nonsense has my head spinning, Cassian. Bring me back to the ground, will you?"

"Be your constant?" he prompted, and when Jyn tipped her head at him, he gave a conciliatory nod and asked, "Would you please take your clothes off so that I'm not tempted to rip them off of you?"

"That's much better," Jyn said. She pulled her overdress off slowly, edging the hem up and sliding it over her head. She unlatched her loose chest wrap and slid her leggings down as she kicked off her shoes. She tossed the entire pile in the corner and began unfastening the embroidered white tunic he'd bought for himself on Bespin. She pushed it over his shoulders and heard his breath hitch a little in his throat as it fell to the ground.

Jyn's heart thumped in her chest when she lowered her hand and grazed her fingers over his leggings. She felt him going hard beneath her touch, and when his own hand nudged between her legs, she was already a bit wet. She whined a little when his fingers dragged around the outside of her womanhood, and his voice seemed a bit helpless as he told her,

"I won't last long tonight, Jyn. I want you too badly. But I'll take you again before the morning… and then in the morning… and then tomorrow night, and -"

"Cassian." Jyn's fingers nimbly worked their way into the waistband of his leggings, edging them down and pulling out his firm length. "We have all the time you could imagine, or none of it. It doesn't matter, does it? Let's just make love now, as husband and wife? All right?"

"All right." Cassian shoved his leggings the rest of the way down, and suddenly Jyn found herself being pushed onto the too-narrow, hard bed. She flopped rather ungracefully, half-on and half-off with her knees bent over the edge of the bed. Cassian loomed over her, his cock grazing Jyn's belly as his palms ran up her ribcage and over her breasts. He leaned down to kiss her, his fingers linking with hers above her head as he somehow managed to line up his cock correctly.

When he pushed into her, Jyn felt like everything had come together, a puzzle finally completed, stars finally aligned. She tried to moan against his mouth as he thrust, but she couldn't. She was lost in him. All she could do was squeeze at his hands and relish the sensation of being filled by him. She ignored the relentless banging of the rickety bed as Cassian pumped himself into her. She knew people could probably hear, or worse yet, _sense_ , what was happening in this room. She couldn't care. All she could do was feel him.

It lasted a minute or an hour. She had no idea. In and out, in and out in steady, deep thrusts that were mirrored by the rhythm of their kisses and their breaths. His hands went to her hips every now and then, and sometimes she touched his chest, but they always found their way back to linking fingers above Jyn's head. When she came, in a subtle but powerful detonation of warmth and pleasure, Jyn ripped her mouth from Cassian's and whispered,

"I love you."

" _Jyn_." Cassian buried himself within her, losing himself just a moment later as he burrowed his face in the halo of her hair. She felt his lips on the skin beneath her ear as he murmured, "My everything."

* * *

"So," said K-2SO the next morning at breakfast, "Do I even need to ask how -"

"Don't, Kay-Tu," Cassian said sharply. "Just… don't."

"Anyway," Bodhi said lightly, as Jyn and Cassian took their seats, "The whole lot of us are supposed to meet with Master Yoda and Master Kenobi in an hour. And a few others."

"For what purpose?" Cassian asked, and Baze said in a grave tone,

"So they can assess our skills and what advantages we might bring to their rebellion."

Jyn looked around the Jedi base and scoffed a little. "They think they know rebellion?" she asked, remembering the battle on Scarif and everything that had come before it. "They haven't seen anything yet. Just wait until they meet us."

"Fulfillers of the prophecy, indeed," Cassian said in a sly voice. He tipped his head and looked straight at K-2 as he said, "I'm the lover."

"And I'm the towering droid," K-2 replied sharply. "The wording wasn't any of our choice."

"I don't mind mine," Baze shrugged. "The assassin. At least it's accurate."

"I quite like mine," Bodhi said, setting down his muja muffin. "The apostate. I'll wear it like a badge of honor."

"The visionary," Chirrut said reverently. "I would not ask to be called anything else."

Jyn reached for the pendant around her neck. _The woman with kyber near her heart._ "We may be ghosts," she told the others, "and we may be saviors. Who knows. But we know, better than anyone else, what we really are."

Cassian nodded. "Rebels."

* * *

 _llumination Base Selvaris_

"So. I assume introductions are in order," said Obi-Wan Kenobi from where he sat beside Master Yoda. The meeting room was really more of a pleasant courtyard filled with tropical flowering plants and shading palms. K-2SO was recharging, but Jyn thought perhaps his absence was a benefit for a meeting such as this. The assembled were seated on rather plush stools that seemed waterproof, and Jyn had to confess she felt more at ease here at the Jedi Temple than she had felt anywhere else in this odd permutation. Kenobi touched his chest and said,

"I'll begin. My name is Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jedi Master and former General for the Republic during the Clone Wars. I have been raised as a Jedi from infancy. I studied under Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn, and my own Padawan learner was Anakin Skywalker."

Jyn's mouth fell open, and she turned in shock to Cassian, who said in disbelief, "You taught… _him_?"

Kenobi nodded calmly, and Yoda cut in,

"Too old to begin training, Skywalker probably was, when found he was on Tatooine. Drawn to the Dark Side from the beginning, he was."

"Then why did you train him?" Jyn demanded, and Yoda's eyes narrowed.

"Perfect vision, none of us have," he declared. "His true path, we did not foresee."

"By the way," Obi-Wan Kenobi said, "This is Grand Master Yoda, the elder and most revered member of the Jedi High Council. Or what remains of it, anyway. I'm not sure how the Clone Wars ended in your… where you're from."

"Order 66 was put into place, it is said," Chirru declared from where he sat. The others went hush, and Chirrut continued, "The clone troopers had been programmed to turn on the Jedi who ordered their creation. That was rumor. The truth died with the Jedi."

Kenobi and Yoda exchanged a meaningful look, and Kenobi said, "Order 66 was mostly foiled before it could occur. A biochip in a clone trooper malfunctioned, and those of us Jedi who learned about the conspiracy fled to Wild Space before we could be killed. We have no idea if any clones are still alive. All we know is that Count Dooku, and then Anakin Skywalker, have spent decades undermining every political justice enacted under the Republic. We know they have implemented a regime of physical terror, economic tyranny, and discrimination against certain species."

"When is the last time any of your resistance efforts against Anakin Skywalker resulted in something measurable?" Baze Malbus asked, and Yoda said in his little croak,

"Seven years ago, to Coruscant a group was sent. Fifty Jedi, to the greatest of the temples went. Expelled they were, by Anakin Skywalker, from Coruscant, when attempts to ameliorate his politics they made."

"And did that group come back?" Jyn asked. Kenobi sighed and shook his head.

"We have not had the manpower, nor the firepower, for any real military efforts in a good long while," he admitted, "and… Anakin has never been terribly open to diplomacy. Now. You all know about the prophecy by now. No need to dwell on it. If you would… tell us a bit about yourselves. In your own words."

Jyn snorted awkwardly, thinking that this felt like the worst of childhood icebreakers, but when the others looked to her, she shrugged and said, "My name is Jyn Erso. I am married to Cassian Andor. I am the daughter of Lyra and Galen Erso; my father was compelled to help create the superweapon that destroyed all of us in our original existence. From a young age, I was made to fend for myself, a situation about which I can make little complaint, since it taught me a good many survival tactics."

"Except how to survive a shockwave from the Death Star," Cassian said from beside her, and Jyn couldn't help but smirk as she nodded.

"Except for that. So… that's me. That's Jyn."

Obi-Wan Kenobi looked quite serious as he declared, "I am very pleased to meet you, Jyn Erso. And your husband?"

Cassian raised his eyebrows. "I am Cassian Andor. I was born on Fest, where my very first combat consisted of throwing things at Clone Troopers."

Even Baze and Bodhi looked surprised at that, but Cassian barrelled on.

"From a young age, I have served as intelligence for the Alliance to Restore the Republic. We were fighting against an Empire that doesn't exist here, apparently, but your tyranny and ours bear all the same expressions."

"A spy, you were," Yoda nodded. "A spy you shall be again, your shrewd wife by your side. If, that is, agree to serve our cause you will."

"I'm not sure how surreptitious Cassian and I can possibly be," Jyn balked. "Anakin Skywalker knows both our faces."

"Surprised, you might be," Yoda said, "about how invisible one may become with determination."

That made Jyn's stomach turn a little, but Cassian seemed unaffected by the words. Obi-Wan Kenobi turned his pale eyes to Bodhi and said in a warm tone,

"You are the pilot who defected. Is that right?"

Bodhi visibly gulped and nodded. "Bodhi Rook. I trained for two years to become an Imperial pilot, but I… I failed the starfighter exams. I transported goods on cargo shuttles. Saw the Empire for what it was and defected to the Rebel Alliance. With the help of Galen Erso."

"Defect you did, perhaps, for the chance to fly a starfighter. Hmm?" Yoda's words were accusatory, but his eyes and his tone were clearly a bit playful. Bodhi smiled sadly and tapped his fingers together.

"I never did fly one," he admitted. "Died before I got the chance. Or came over here. Whatever happened."

"Perhaps with a bit of proper training, there is yet a starfighter pilot inside of you," Obi-Wan Kenobi declared. "It just so happens we have quite a few starfighters lying around this place, and I would be willing to tutor you. We could use a fearless pilot with nothing to lose."

Bodhi's black eyes glittered with excitement, and he nodded fervently. "Yeah. All right. That sounds… that'll be good, then."

"And you… Baze Malbus." Yoda turned his wizened green face to Baze and said, "Killed you have, many times over, with a repeating cannon. In my mind I see it. Strapped to you for years it was, another arm of sorts. How do you fight, Baze Malbus, when such a weapon you have not?"

"Given the right motivation, I can fight with anything or with nothing," Baze declared. His eyes flicked for a microsecond to Chirrut, but Jyn knew the Jedi would catch it. Sure enough, half of Kenobi's mouth quirked up, and he said,

"And the motivation beside you. The visionary. How does he fight, Baze Malbus?"

Now Baze looked fully at Chirrut, and his face softened a little. Chirrut's milky eyes turned to Baze, who said in an uncharacteristically quiet voice,

"Chirrut fights with words. With a staff, with a lightbow, with his hearing and with something I can not feel or sense. Who knows? Who cares? Chirrut fights. That's all."

"And have you ever fought with a lightsaber, Chirrut Îmwe?" Obi-Wan Kenobi asked. Chirrut shook his head and tipped his chin up just a little as he said,

"The tradition and skill of making lightsabers died with the last of the Jedi."

"Oh, well… lucky we have so many Jedi about here, then," Kenobi quipped. He looked straight at Jyn as his dry smile disappeared. "If only there were kyber crystals scattered about this planet the way starfighters are."

Jyn's hand went to her neck, and she pulled her kyber crystal pendant from under her tunic. She dragged her thumb over the crystal and shut her eyes, and she asked,

"Is this what my mother meant when she told me to trust the Force?"

"Defeat Anakin Skywalker, that kyber crystal will, in the hands of Chirrut Îmwe," Yoda said confidently.

"What, in a duel?" Baze asked nervously, and when Jyn opened her eyes, she could see Baze glaring from Obi-Wan Kenobi to Yoda and back. Kenobi nodded slowly.

"Many of the Jedi Masters have seen it. It is uncertain; nothing is ever really certain, but the number of visions since you arrived is remarkable. _That_ kyber crystal, made into a lightsaber and driven by Chirrut Îmwe into Skywalker himself… that may be the key to bringing justice to the galaxy again."

"Jyn, you don't have to…" Cassian shook his head vigorously, but Jyn had already made up her mind. She yanked hard at the tie that had kept the crystal round her neck through time and space. Her fingers shook as she reached to her right, to where Chirrut sat, and pried open his fingers.

"Jyn…" Chirrut said, sounding a bit sad, but Jyn closed his fingers around the crystal and nodded firmly.

"Now I finally understand why she put it round my neck all those years ago," Jyn declared. "Do with it what you will. Let justice be restored."


	8. Chapter 8

_Illumination Base Selvaris_

"I would have never imagined Chirrut could fight like that," marveled Jyn as she watched Chirrut whirl around the training arena.

"Oh," Baze said softly. "I always knew he had that in him."

Jyn watched as Chirrut stuck his left hand out and deflected a blaster stunning shot fired at him by Cassian from the edge of the arena. The blaster shot ricocheted off the stone wall, and then Chirrut's feet moved deftly toward Obi-Wan Kenobi. The two men brought their lightsabers together, and Chirrut's silvery white blade vibrated a little when it his Kenobi's. Jyn watched in wonder as the experienced Jedi Master staggered back a step. When Chirrut brought his vibrant white saber up in an elegant arc, Kenobi parried the strike. But then Chirrut yanked his saber away, bobbed his head to avoid Kenobi's swing, and brought his lightsaber hard toward Kenobi's hip.

Jyn gasped, afraid that Chirrut was going to slice the Jedi Master straight through. But Chirrut's hand froze just before his weapon struck Kenobi. Jyn lowered her shaking hand from her lips, and Chirrut turned toward her with a knowing smile.

"Just training, Jyn," he reassured her, his milky eyes glinting. In the far corner, Cassian tucked his blaster away and admitted,

"I'm impressed."

"So am I," said Obi-Wan Kenobi, turning off his own blue lightsaber and tucking the hilt away. As Chirrut did the same with his own newly-crafted weapon, Kenobi nodded and said to Jyn, "That was no ordinary kyber crystal you wore around your neck. This is no ordinary weapon."

"And no ordinary man bearing it," Baze added. "Once you put Kay-Tu and me around him - with repeater cannons, thanks - as guards, he'll be unstoppable."

"Guards?" Jyn repeated, her eyes flicking from Baze to Kenobi. "Kay-Tu an Baze are going to go with Chirrut to kill Anakin Skywalker?"

"We're assuming there will be a fair number of battle droids in the way," Kenobi admitted. "As for how they'll get there? That's where Bodhi Rook comes in, and Luke, once he's come back."

"I still fail to see how that so-called 'stealth corvette' is particularly stealthy," noted K-2 from behind Baze. He folded his mechanical arms a bit and tipped his head. "It's awfully loud. And fast. I think someone will see and hear that thing coming from a parsec away."

"Not if Bodhi and Luke can keep it in hyperspace until the very last moment," Cassian told K-2.

"And how, exactly, will they know where to pull out of hyperspace to find Anakin Skywalker?" K-2 demanded. "The odds of us knowing the location of Anakin Skywalker at any given point in time are -"

"That's where Cassian and Jyn come into play," said Kenobi. His face darkened a little where he stood in the training arena, and Cassian said from behind him,

"You want us to track Anakin Skywalker down and keep you all aware of his location."

Kenobi nodded. "We won't know until the time is right for an... assassination… until Leia has spread the truth about Anakin's tyranny. We can't make a martyr of him, or the Republic will never be restored."

There was acute sadness in Kenobi's blue eyes. Jyn remembered how Kenobi had explained that Anakin Skywalker had been his own student. The two had probably had a close relationship, she reckoned, and it was likely difficult for Kenobi to be going through with plans to assassinate Skywalker. But Jyn could tell that Kenobi was the type to separate his own personal emotions from the goal at hand. So she was unsurprised when he nodded and looked at Chirrut and said,

"I have confidence that we will succeed, now that you are all here."

"Chirrut looked downright terrifying with that white lightsaber," Jyn said to Cassian as the two of them hiked a good distance from the rebuilt Jedi Temple.

"It was the right thing to do," he said, "giving Chirrut your kyber crystal."

"I reckon maybe it was never actually _mine_ ," Jyn said. Her boots scuffed on the red-orange dust on the trail and pushed aside a palm branch as they came to a clearing. Cassian's mouth fell open as they finally came to the source of the rushing sound they'd been hearing for a mile.

A wide waterfall, almost too serene for words, tumbled in uneven sheets over the semicircular rock that surrounded them overhead. Jyn stepped forward, not minding the way her boots got wet with the water that filled the turquoise grotto before them. The greenery around them was so dense that she could hardly see into the forest. It felt private and peaceful, and Jyn grinned for the first time in a while as she looked over her shoulder at Cassian and asked,

"Who knew paradise was all the way out here in Wild Space?"

Cassian's face was a little strange then as he shook his head and said, "It's been paradise since Scarif, Jyn."

Jyn wanted him then, very suddenly, but she overcame the base urge to snatch his face and kiss him for all she was worth. Instead, she glanced at the turquoise pool and asked him, "Can you swim?"

"Of course," he said, and Jyn smirked into the water. She peeled off her sleeveless tunic and her chest wrap and tossed them onto the large rocks nearby. She kicked off her boots and peeled off her leggings and underwear, and they joined her other clothes. Without looking back at Cassian, she began to walk over the smooth pebbles into the pool. Jyn gasped a little at the chill of the water, but once she realized the pool drained into a small stream, she understood why it was so clear and cold. Once she was chest-deep in the water, she turned round to see Cassian following her, naked and shivering a little at the feel of the water.

"I want to swim under the waterfall," Jyn informed him, and she kicked off the bottom of the pool as she started to paddle half-heartedly away. Cassian followed her there, too, quickly catching up with her as she approached the waterfall. Jyn laughed as she took hold of the rock wall in one hand and let her head go under the forceful stream of the waterfall. It was like the most intense shower she'd ever taken, and she shrieked a little at the feeling.

Suddenly she was being pulled backward by her elbow, and Jyn gasped as her body was guided away from the waterfall by Cassian's hands. She kept hold of the wall as he pressed himself against her in the grotto behind the waterfall, his voice echoing off the rock as he murmured,

"You're my wife, Jyn Erso."

"Yes," she nodded. "And you're my husband, Cassian Andor."

She shivered then, from the cold water and from the look in his dark eyes as his free hand cupped her jaw. He touched his cool lips to hers and whispered, "I love you."

"And I love you," she promised him. She flicked her eyes to the side and saw that the back of the grotto was smooth, multilayered shale. Jyn quirked up half her mouth and challenged Cassian, "I bet we can get up there and… you know."

Cassian snorted a little laugh as he shivered in the water. He shook his head. "That doesn't work very well after being submerged in cold water."

Jyn giggled and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, letting him pin her to the wall as she said in the most seductive voice she could manage, "I'll warm it up for you, Cassian."

"Oh, you will, will you?" Cassian raised an eyebrow. "How are you going to do that?"

Jyn kissed him and pulled his tongue between her lips. She suckled his tongue hard and nibbled his lip, and then she reminded him, "The inside of my mouth is still warm, isn't it?"

He touched his forehead to hers and grunted a little. "Yes, it is."

"Let's go." Jyn released him and turned toward the wall. She started to climb, knowing that she looked profoundly ungraceful and not caring. Her arms and legs were strong after years of a hardscrabble existence, and as she hauled herself up onto the perimeter of the grotto, she could feel her own body warming solely from the exertion. She started to crawl back to the smooth, long planks of shale and called over her shoulder, "You're good, right?"

"Oh, sure. Just fine." Cassian's voice sounded strained, and when Jyn reached a platform of shale, she could see that Cassian had struggled with the climbing a bit more than she'd done. His dripping body was red-cheeked and his breath huffed as he crawled toward her. When he reached her, Jyn urged him to lie on his back with his knees bent and his hands beneath his head. Cassian laughed and shook his head. "This seems like a bad idea."

"No, no. It's a marvelous idea." Jyn shook so badly from climbing out of the cold water that she rather wished they'd found some sun-soaked place on the other side of the waterfall instead. She put her trembling hands on Cassian's slick chest and murmured, "Body heat."

She tried to achieve that then by rubbing her breasts and her arms all over him, by kissing the skin on his neck and his lips. She felt his head lower to the stone as his hands searched her wet form, his palms going over her back and hips and through her hair. Gradually, Jyn started to warm up. Then she started to feel wet between her legs, and finally she started to experience the throbbing _need_ that always came after enough touching. Jyn ripped her mouth from Cassian's when she felt him going firm between their bodies. She laughed a little and slithered downward, hoping that whatever she did now would feel good for him.

She'd read a little, and seen a little in holovids, but she'd never done anything like this. She wrapped her fingers around Cassian's length and stared for a moment, just listening to the rush of the waterfall beside them as it crashed against the water in the grotto. Cassian's fingers, shaking terribly, came to rest on Jyn's shoulders, and he murmured,

"I love you, Jyn Erso."

That was it. That was all the encouragement Jyn needed. She swirled her tongue around his tip and relished the sound of his voice echoing off the rocks.

"Kriffing stars, Jyn," he moaned when she dipped her face down. It was a strange feeling, the way his tip touched the back of her throat. Jyn back a little before she could gag. Instead she just suckled him, adoring the soft-on-hard feel of him in her mouth. Her hand went on instinct between his thighs and caressed the twin orbs there, carefully and delicately weighing them in her hand as her head moved up and down his length. Jyn's own body was properly hot now, thudding with want and tingling all over. When she sucked on his tip again, Cassian jerked his hips a little and warned her,

"Jyn. Jyn, you have to… _Jyn_ , I'm going to -"

She knew what he meant, and she wanted it anyway. She'd heard it tasted bad; she didn't care. She'd tasted worse. She knew she had. And, anyway, this was _him_ , this was Cassian, and she wanted every bit of him that she could have. So Jyn put her hands on his hips and burrowed him as deeply into her mouth as she could without choking. She made swallowing motions, as though she were already drinking him in. Cassian's back arched a little, and his fists pounded the shale around him as he said through gritted teeth,

"Agh… Jyn. _My_ Jyn."

It was bitter and salty and really not at all pleasant, but Jyn didn't care. It came in spurts echoed by the pulse of his cock, and she drank it down as quickly as she could. Her fingers quivered as she soothed him through his release, stroking at his clenched abdomen and his still-wet thighs. When she finally pulled back from him, Cassian was breathless with his eyes shut.

"Mmph," he moaned softly. "How am I supposed to get off these rocks after _that_?"

"Well," Jyn informed him cheekily, "if you don't get off these rocks, you can't hike back to the Temple for supper. And if you don't do that, you can't curl up next to me in our bed tonight and return the favor I just did for you, eh?"

She glanced over the edge of the shale platform and then smirked at Cassian, who had cracked open his eyes. He reached for her cheek and whispered,

"If we were vaporized again tomorrow, I would have lived more than I ever thought possible."

Jyn covered his hand with hers and nodded once. "Let's hope we're not vaporized. Come on, now. Catch me if you can."

She sprang from the platform into the deep turquoise water below, landing with a splash and only just managing to keep from gasping as she made her way to the surface of the frigid water.

 _Confederation Stealth Cruiser Epiphany_

 _Outer Rim, near Hoth_

"President Skywalker, sir… a holo message from Count Dooku has been received for you over the ship's encrypted computers."

Anakin turned to see Tima'a, his loyal Togruta assistant, standing in the doorway of his very small office. He'd retreated to this stealth cruiser, with its cloaking devices, once it was evident to him that his children were trying to overthrow him. He held his hand out, and when Tima'a placed the small projector on his desk, he realized again how much she resembled Ahsoka Tano, the padawan learner he himself had had all those years ago. But Tima'a was different from Ahsoka; she was more meek and far more subservient. She would do anything Anakin wanted, anything he willed. He knew that.

For a half second, Anakin considered propositioning Tima'a. He was the President of the entire Confederation and he was stuck on this stealth cruiser with only a few crew and servants. He could have whatever he wanted.

 _Maybe later_ , he thought to himself. There were other matters at hand. He waved his cybernetic hand to dismiss Tima'a, who shut the door to the little office as she left. Anakin looked out the small triangular viewport beside him, gazing at the icy white waste of Hoth for a moment. Finally he pushed the button on the holoprojector, and the blue fuzzy image of Count Dooku appeared. His voice was hoarse and weak as he said,

" _Anakin, there is absolutely no sign of them anywhere where the Confederation has surveillance. You know what that means. They are with Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi somewhere beyond our reach. If you want to harness the very foundations of your strength in the Force, you know what to do. To find them, you must use everything I have ever taught you. You must find all your power in the Dark Side of the Force. I fear I will die soon enough, but you are fearsome enough on your own. Use the Force to find them all, and then destroy them. Do not let what we have created be destroyed. You know where to go. Goodbye, Anakin._ "

The blue holo message vanished, and Anakin blinked a few times. He gulped hard and shut his eyes, and his voice shook a bit as he said,

"Tima'a."

She wouldn't hear him if he spoke so quietly, he knew, scolding himself. He barked, far more viciously, "Tima'a!"

She came rushing into his office, breathless at having evidently dashed across the stealth cruiser. "Yes, sir?"

"Tell the pilots to set a new course," Anakin ordered. "We're going to Moraband."

"So, here we have the subspace transceivers, the searching hypertransceiver, and the antiradar defense unit. We're assuming Anakin Skywalker will be in a cloaked vessel, but since you'll be hacking and infiltrating communications, you might still catch a whiff of him. If you can get to Coruscant, you'll likely find that the Confederation Headquarters contains a wealth of useful intelligence."

Plo Kloon, the Kel Dor Jedi Master who was showing Jyn and Cassian around their spy vessel, sighed a bit and glanced toward the cockpit. He pointed a claw-like finger to the controls and told Cassian,

"This ship doesn't require a copilot, but it's not as high-powered as the ship aboard which you came here. It'll take you thirty days, easily, to get back to the Outer Rim. You've got more than enough rations and medical supplies for that time, but it'll push the hyperdrive to its limits. Check your navigation and the hyperdrive inhibitor frequently; on such a long journey through hyperspace, you're liable to drive straight into a planet."

Jyn gulped and looked around the ship. Called the _Shadow_ , it was much smaller than Leia's luxury transport vessel. There were two bunks - a top and bottom unit - against one wall. There was a cabinet of holovids and holobooks. There were two small armchairs facing one another. There was an exercise machine, a cramped 'fresher, and a sonic washer for clothes. There was a galley consisting of stored rations, packets of fluids, and a rapid nanowave cooker. A cabinet near the cockpit was marked _Medical_ in big red letters. And then there was a pilot's chair and a viewport. That was it.

Well, Jyn reckoned, if she and Cassian managed over a month aboard such a small ship without killing each other, their marriage was probably bound to last.

"We leave as soon as possible," Cassian noted to Plo Kloon, "before the planet's rotation adds too much to the journey."

"Leia is, as far as we know, already distributing materials against Anakin throughout the Confederation planets," Plo Kloon nodded. "By the time you two reach the Outer Rim and begin hunting Anakin, the populace will have likely turned against him."

"What about Baze, Chirrut, Kay-Tu, and Bodhi?" Jyn questioned, folding her arms. "If it takes them a month to reach us, what good does it do us to know where Anakin Skywalker is?"

"They're leaving tomorrow in their own ships," Plo Kloon said. "And, as far as I know, Masters Yoda and Kenobi will be taking several Jedi Generals and Knights in a ship of their own. As soon as you two find Skywalker, then…"

"Everything hits the fan, as it were," Cassian nodded. Plo Kloon was quiet for a moment, and then he said,

"Take a moment and bid farewell to your friends. It is never certain when we shall see those we care about again. Thank you both for your commitment to the cause."

Jyn still wondered what exactly 'the cause' was, but once Plo Kloon had stepped down the boarding ramp, she realized who was standing at the bottom. The entire rest of the Rogue One crew, the ones who had crossed boundless time and space with them, were standing in a row. This all felt terribly familiar, Jyn thought, remembering what it had been like to say goodbye to Chirrut and Baze on Dagobah. But things were different now.

She stepped down the ramp and gave Bodhi a warm smile and an embrace. "You fly safely," she told him. "No crashing allowed."

"No crashing. Got it." Bodhi pulled back and smiled at Jyn as he told her, "I never got to fly the good ships where we came from. Now's my chance. I won't muck it up."

"I know you won't, Bodhi," Jyn nodded. She came to Baze next, and she glanced at the repeater cannon he'd been given. She grinned and told Baze. "Careful with that thing; you hit Chirrut and we're all done for."

"I'm a crack shot, remember?" Baze told her. "Besides, Chirrut will be just fine. He doesn't need me. He's got the Force."

"I may have the Force, but I'll still take you," Chirrut said in a conciliatory voice, and Jyn's eyes seared as he pulled his lightsaber hilt from his belt. He took Jyn's fingers and dragged them over the slick silver hilt, and he whispered, "Do you feel your crystal inside here, Jyn?"

She didn't, not really, but Chirrut's milky eyes lit up just the same. He tucked the lightsaber away again and told her,

"You are one with the Force, and the Force is with you."

Jyn nodded once and swallowed hard. "I am one with the Force, and the Force is with me."

Cassian was beside Jyn saying goodbye to his long-time friend. K-2So looked down at Cassian and Jyn and said in a rather dry voice,

"Such a small ship. Such a long journey. I do wonder what two people such as yourselves might do for entertainment."

"Kay-Tu," Cassian warned, but K-2 continued,

"The odds of you two leaving vile stains all over that vessel are -"

"Kay, I'm going to miss you like mad," Jyn fibbed. She patted the droid's enormous metal chest, and then her hand failed to move away as she said more sincerely, "I am. I am going to miss all of you. Thank you."

"Thank _you_ , Jyn Erso," K-2 said with an uncharacteristic lack of snark. His illuminated eyes turned to Cassian, but he spoke to Jyn as he said, "May I request that you keep Cassian alive for me?"

"I'll do my best, Kay," Jyn nodded. She seized Cassian's hand then, knowing they could drag these farewells out for hours if they weren't careful. The two of them walked back up the ramp onto the _Shadow,_ but then a voice from behind them said,

"Jyn. Cassian."

Jyn turned to see that Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda had joined their friends at the base of the ramp. Kenobi smiled serenely and nodded, and Yoda said,

"May the Force be with you."

* * *

 _Moraband_

Anakin Skywalker sat in the vacuous, ancient Sith training space inside his Moraband base. He'd folded his legs and descended into a level of meditation that his younger self would have envied mightily. Obi-Wan Kenobi had always possessed superior meditation abilities, which had frustrated Anakin endlessly. But Count Dooku had taught him new ways of losing himself in the void, and Anakin used those abilities now to their fullest.

He was nothing here, in this great black void. He had no body, no soul, no substance at all. He had no thoughts, no desires, no frustrations. He was nothing, and there was nothing around him. Anakin stayed there in that mighty nothing for a while until he knew he could channel the Force effectively.

He thought of Luke and Leia as babies wrapped up in Padmé's arms. He thought of them as children, running around and shrieking as they played. He thought of Luke as a young man, of Leia as a young woman, each of them dutifully taking on roles in his administration and military complex. Then Anakin thought of them _now_ , right now, and tried to find them.

Nothing.

He usually felt an angry sort of red signature from Leia in the Force. Now? Nothing. From Luke, the normal blue throb was gone. His children had abandoned him. They were blocking him actively, Anakin knew, or else he would be able to track them.

Suddenly his meditative state was gone. Dooku had told him to come here to Moraband to seek out Luke and Leia, but for three days in a row, it had come to nothing. Anakin felt more rage go through him than he'd felt in years. He flew to his feet and stormed out of the training space. He dashed up the enormous ladder to the crow's nest above his base. He stared out at the dull orange peaks of Moraband's mountains. Anakin growled and held his hand out, sending all of the Force he could muster toward one mountain in particular. His hand shook fiercely as the mountain began to crumble. The soft rumble of stone turning to dust accelerated and got louder as Anakin used the Force to destroy the mountain. It started to topple and dissolve, and the ground trembled beneath Anakin's feet.

"President Skywalker!"

He flicked his eyes over his shoulder to where Tima'a, his Togruta assistant, stood looking terrified. She watched through the transparisteel as the mountain was destroyed beneath the immense power of Anakin Skywalker. She nearly dropped the holodoc in her hands, and Anakin flicked his fingers away from the mountain to summon the holodoc from Tima'a. She yelped a little as the holodoc soared through the air into Anakin's hands.

"What is this?" he snarled, pressing his good palm to the screen. Tima'a looked more frightened than ever as she admitted,

"It's a… a political publication, sir. It's being distributed throughout the galaxy. Someone's hacked into holozine and news systems. Many billions have seen it. It's only been out for a few hours, but… but they're already reporting unrest in the Core Worlds, sir."

Anakin's eyes went wide as he read the holodoc. It took everything he had to keep from destroying the holodoc long enough to read it in its entirety.

 _THE TRUTH ABOUT SKYWALKER_

 _Civilians throughout the Confederation have been lied to for a very long time. The regime of Anakin Skywalker exists solely to give Skywalker personal power, not to provide any benefit to ordinary civilians. Whenever the slightest hint of resistance is detected, the regime sends death squads to eliminate anyone - adults and children alike - who dare to question the tyranny of Anakin Skywalker._

There was a looping video then showing a death squad under the command of Orson Krennic, mowing down a village full of humans and Rodians. Anakin's stomach clenched as the video loop showed, over and over, the way that the blaster bolts hit children straight in the chest, the way the children collapsed in death to the dusty ground. The holodoc continued,

 _Scientists, inventors, and healers have been forced to give their intellectual talents over entirely to the Confederation. Instead of being allowed to create in ways that benefit their fellow beings, these individuals are obligated to help perpetuate the dictatorial aims of Anakin Skywalker._

 _Last year's outbreak of Bandonian Plague was carefully designed to be treatment-resistant and to wipe out specific species that had shown resistance toward Skywalker. The disease was deliberately spread throughout 'troublesome' civilian areas. The hyper-powerful ion cannons used to destroy cities in recent years were developed by captive engineers. Some of the quickest droid advancements in recent years have been in the creation of new torture and interrogation droids, which are used to compel obedience._

 _Is this the world we wanted when we let the Republic dissolve twenty years ago? Why have we allowed ourselves to become the victims of an egomaniacal lunatic like Anakin Skywalker? He must be removed from power so that justice, instead of tyranny, can spread throughout the galaxy._

Anakin chomped so hard on his lip that he tasted the iron in his blood. He crunched the holodoc beneath his hands. His twisted it as it shattered and whined in protest, and when he threw it against the wall, it flew so hard that it left a mark. Then Anakin turned to face Tima'a, his chest heaving with rage.

"This is Leia's doing," he muttered, more to himself than to Tima'a. The Togruta's eyes went wide and wet, and she stammered,

"P-please, President Skywalker, just tell me what you'd like me to -"

Anakin cut her off then by raising up his hand and squeezing. Tima'a grasped desperately at her throat as she began to choke. It felt good, Anakin thought, to destroy a living being just now. He was more angry than he could ever remember being, and everything seemed to be falling down around him. But right here, right now, in this moment, the feeling of draining the life from Tima'a was a relief. Tima'a whimpered very softly as she fell to her knees, the color deepening on her pretty face as her eyes fluttered shut. She fell from her knees to lie on the ground, and still Anakin closed his hand more tightly. Tima'a raked her fingers over the ground, desperately inching forward. Then she stopped moving and flopped onto her back. Her pulse had stopped; Anakin could tell.

He stepped over the remnants of the holodoc and over the corpse of Tima'a as he made his way to the room where this base's subspace transceiver was kept. There was only one person in the galaxy Anakin trusted now.

* * *

 _The Shadow_

 _Hyperspace_

Jyn grunted rather ungracefully as her thighs started to really burn. She'd been on the exercise machine for over a half hour now, and her body was starting to feel the full effects of the workout. The machine was designed to have a slim profile aboard the small ship, and it allowed a variety of exercises to be done with just a few arrangements to the mechanics. Jyn had spent a while crunching her elbows and knees together, which had sent a solid ache through her abdomen. Then she'd done quick vertical climbing steps while moving her arms up and down, and now she was bringing her legs up one at a time with resistance. She had stripped down to just leggings and an undershirt, both of which were now utterly soaked through with sweat.

"Well," Cassian told her from where he sat reading a holobook, "Nobody can accuse you of being lazy, Jyn Erso."

"Nope." Jyn brought her legs up a few more times and finally decided she'd had enough. She climbed off the machine, her legs feeling like jelly, and she staggered to the cabinet of water packets. She slurped one down and peeled off her sweaty clothes, shoving them into the sonic washer on the wall. She glanced over her shoulder to see Cassian eyeing her hungrily. She cocked up an eyebrow as she made her way into the 'fresher, and she said, "Be right back."

The sonic shower she took then felt better than any she'd ever taken in her life. Once she was completely clean and dry, Jyn stepped out of the 'fresher, boldly walking past Cassian to the bin where they kept their clean clothes. She had absolutely no modesty around him anymore, not now that they were actually married.

"How's the book?" Jyn asked as she sorted through the clothes and found fresh leggings and a shirt.

"Boring," she heard Cassian say. Jyn stood and turned to him, smirking as she said,

"You've never been much of a reader, though, have you?"

"Have _you_?" Cassian demanded, and Jyn shrugged.

"I get enough excitement just living. What's the book about, anyway?"

Cassian glanced down to the holobook and shrugged. "A girl from a desert planet who goes to Corellia to try and make a life for herself. Gets a job as the assistant of a fabulously wealthy starship tycoon. They fall in love; he leaves his wife for the girl. Then she kills him and takes over the business."

"Well, _that_ hardly sounds boring," Jyn laughed. She walked naked to where Cassian sat and pulled the holobook out of his hands. She read a few pages, giggling at the flowery language and the shocking plot. She set it down on the low table before the chairs and said down to Cassian, "Only a few more days until we're out of hyperspace and in full spy mode, eh?"

"Mm-hmm," Cassian nodded, his hands tightening on the arms of his chair as he looked Jyn up and down. She couldn't help but preen a little then, to stand just so until her chest was out a little. She spoke in a low, sibilant tone as she instructed Cassian,

"Take it out, will you?"

He knew what she meant. His eyes didn't leave hers as he opened his trousers and pulled himself out. He was already half hard, probably from the way Jyn was strutting around naked. She felt a sudden warm flush between her legs, and she felt her nipples go hard even in the warm interior of the ship. She swallowed hard and met Cassian's eyes.

"Touch it. I like to watch."

"Do you?" he asked, his hand visibly trembling as he pulled it up and around his cock. Jyn turned her attention to the way he was touching himself, feeling herself go wetter by the moment. She liked the way he throbbed beneath his own touch, the way Cassian's chest started to move more quickly under his thin shirt, the way his eyes were struggling to stay open.

Soon enough there would be a war in this strange sideways reality, Jyn knew. They would be hunting Anakin Skywalker, and Chirrut would try and kill him, and they would probably all die. Again. But for right now, for this moment, Jyn was Cassian's wife, and she was alone with him.

She crawled onto the small armchair, squeezing her knees between the bantha leather and Cassian's hips. She lowered herself onto him, her body tight and slick as he filled her. She snared her arms around Cassian's shoulders and felt his hands go to her waist. She kissed him, drinking him in so deeply that she lost herself entirely for a moment. Cassian's hands urged her to move, and she did, settling into a smooth, slow rhythm.

They stayed like that for a long time, and Jyn tried her hardest to lock it all into her memory. If she lost him for good, she would still have this, she thought. No matter what happened once this little ship came out of hyperspace, her mind would have this. Her mind would have him. So she rolled her hips and kissed her husband until her body clenched around him. He grunted against her neck as he found his pleasure and filled her, and Jyn moved her fingers to his hair. She massaged his scalp and kissed his cheek, and her voice was quiet and shaking as she told him,

"It doesn't matter what happens to me now, Cassian Andor. I'll always have you."


End file.
